First the Insurgents, Then Marines

Villagers in west Iraq are glad troops swept out rebels. But they're also wary of the U.S.

By Solomon Moore
Times Staff Writer

May 14, 2005

RIBAT, Iraq — After he served the Marines tea and sat them in his garden, the former Iraqi government official pulled up his shirt and showed his scars.

There were brown welts on his back where he had been flogged. There were small circular burns on his legs. He lifted his upper lip and revealed broken teeth. He held out his hands and displayed red lines where handcuffs had cut into his skin during eight days of captivity.

"The terrorists frighten and hurt the people here. They do checkpoints and patrols. Anyone they catch going to Al Qaim they will kill with a knife and throw him by the road," said the former official, who asked a Los Angeles Times reporter traveling with the Marines not to publish his name for fear that insurgents would kill him and his family.

"Frankly, I don't like the American occupation," he said. "But I prefer the American occupation to occupation by Al Qaeda."

A mission of more than 1,000 Marines, one of the larger deployments since the battle of Fallouja in November, has pressed this week through villages along the Euphrates River near the border with Syria looking for insurgent strongholds.

The Marines launched the campaign Sunday and were immediately engaged in sharp fighting. They have come across few insurgents since, but they have found plenty of people who complain about the guerrillas.

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