The 20-year-old Yassim was heading out the gate of the headquarters building when he noticed a police officer gesturing to him, an old friend by the name of Isam. “He wanted to buy something,” said Yassim.
But before Yassim could react, both he and his officer friend found their transaction cut short by Iraq’s savagely unpredictable guerrilla war. The car directly behind the policeman suddenly exploded into an immense fireball. “There was a big bang, and I was thrown to the ground,” says Yassim. The blast, just 20 yards away, knocked him unconscious. When he came to a few minutes later, someone was helping him to his feet and pulling him away from the scene of the attack. Somewhere along the way, as acrid black smoke gushed into the sky, he saw Officer Isam again. “His chest was all torn up. I really don’t think he made it to the hospital.” In the chaos of events in modern-day Iraq, it was impossible to verify Isam’s fate. One victim of the bombing has since been confirmed dead. At least a dozen others were wounded.
As terrible as those losses were, the most serious damage caused by the attack was political. The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S.-dominated interim administration for occupied Iraq, has been making considerable progress in the training of Iraqi police–perhaps one of the most vital preconditions for regaining control over the chaotic security situation in the country, where banditry, murder, and hit-and-run attacks against Coalition forces remain widespread. Virtually everyone in Iraq these days seems to agree that the occupation authorities can restore order only if the Coalition manages to hand over responsibility for law enforcement to the locals as quickly as possible.
That’s a point that was graphically demonstrated by last week’s killing of one of Iraq’s foremost Shiite clerics, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim, in the holy city of Najaf. Since Hakim’s death, his followers have been harshly criticizing the U.S. for not providing adequate security in the city prior to the murder. (Though U.S. forces had been maintaining a discreet distance from the shrines of the city, they had also refused to allow Iraqi security forces to arm themselves–a fact bitterly assailed by leading Shiite politicians.) Meanwhile, the guerrilla attacks on Coalition forces have triggered often heavy-handed retaliatory raids by U.S. and other Coalition soldiers–feeding a spiral of growing resentment and distrust among ordinary Iraqis.
All of which is why the CPA has been pouring money and resources into the training of as many police as possible. CPA officials cite an impressive figure of 37,000 police who have been put back on Iraqi streets since the end of the war (plus, some 10,000 border guards and customs officials). Ex-New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerick has, by all accounts, worked wonders in the effort to build up a serious Iraqi police force.
Unfortunately, it’s precisely that effort that today’s bombing at Baghdad Police Headquarters was designed to sabotage. The car containing the bomb (equivalent to about 40 kilograms of TNT, according to police sources) was parked close to the offices of senior police officials who are in charge of the Baghdad Police Academy, a prime institution in the Coalition’s police training effort. The bombing may have been timed to forestall a graduation ceremony for Iraqi police cadets planned for this Thursday. Even more ominously, as evening fell in Baghdad, some police officials were suggesting that the placement of the bomb–well inside the Police Headquarters’ security perimeter–pointed to inside involvement.
Be that as it may, though, the bombing attack suggests that the foes of U.S. occupation aren’t ready to give up any time soon. And their allies, the forces of sheer chaos, remain equally persistent. As night fell on Baghdad, the now-familiar sounds of random gunfire echoed through the streets–a reminder that the city, and the country around it, still desperately need every policeman they can get.
