한자로

Baghdad Impressions

The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20141008140104/http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_376.shtml

* ACIG Home * ACIG Journal * ACIG Books * ACIG Forum *

Articles

ACIG Special Reports

ACIG Database

ACIG Books, Articles & Media

Former USSR-Russia Database

Middle East Database

Arabian Peninsula & Persian Gulf Database

Indian-Subcontinent Database

Arabian Peninsula & Persian Gulf Database

Baghdad Impressions
By A. Hayder
Nov 25, 2003, 02:56

Email this article
Printer friendly page

Mr. Hayder, a frequent visitor of the ACIG.org forum, visited Iraq - specifically the Baghdad and Samawah areas - recently as well, and is sending us quite a few photos as well as a short report. Here are his "Baghdad Impressions".

I have been in Iraq for the last three weeks and have seen many interesting things.

It started already in Amman, Jordan, where I have seen two Iraqi Airways B-707s (YI-AGF and YI-AGE), both intact, even if with flat tyres and other signs of wear.

Two Iraqi Airways Boeing-707s can be seen at the tarmac of Amman IAP: the tyres are flat, and the aircraft seem not to have been flown for longer, but they are still intact, and certainly repairable.

In terms of normal life Baghdad is OK, during the Holly month of Ramadhan the shops were open at night and well visited, albeit there was an unbeliveably large presence by police on all the streets.

While in Baghdad, I've seen a whole scrapyard with Iraqi military equipment and many abandoned Iraqi vehicles or equipment (including many BMP-2s, some MT-LB and YW-531s APCs, D-30s howitzers), US Army helicopters (foremost OH-58Ds, UH-60As, and AH-64As) etc. The only operational Iraqi flying equipment I saw were three MD.530s: after surviving more than 15 years in service with the Iraqi Army Air Corps they are now in service with the Iraqi police and one can see them frequently buzzing the Baghdad skyline.

The people in Baghdad generally like the Americans, with the only hostile periods being when terrorist attacks are expected and the roads in the downtown blocked off, causing huge traffic jams. Most large buildings - apart from hotels, apartments and mosques - are burned out and looted. People are genuinelly surprised that American soldiers are so polite - but that's not what I saw on the al-Jazeera satellite network!

In Baghdad the single biggest problem is that of a huge number of second-hand cars being imported - between 60.000 and 80.000 cars arrive in the city each month! This is causing huge queues at the surprisingly small number of petrol stations in the city (not that there is a shortage of fuels as such, just that under Saddam's regime they simply haven't built enough petrol stations!).

This increase in traffic as well as fears of terrorist attacks cause really awfull driving conditions, and little adherence to road-rules by motorists. There are a small number of beggars in the streets, they all appear to be under the "mafia"-similar control from individal "beggar families", each of which controls specific junctions or roundabounts in the city.

Another interesting thing in Baghdad are "Looters on Scooters" that I've never seen on any of the TV/media in the West.

Interestingly, the US forces use M-109 Paladins to control traffic, and while driving through the city we overtook a pair of M-1A1s too. In an office-supply shop a group of Americans came to buy some toner for their photocpiers: they arrived in a pair of Humvees, one of which was armed with a 12.7mm machine-gun, and the other with an M-240 grenade-launcher....classic...

I saw one anti-US protest at the entrance to the Republican Palace: organized by the by Sunni-Arabs from the 'Triangle' (those still loyal to the former regime) but peaceful. Several police cars were parked next to them and they had a banner in English, saying "Iraq for Iraqis". The number of protestors was between 200 and 300.

I went to the Presidential Palace to ask for permission to go and film at the al-Taqqadum Air Base, some 250km west of Baghdad: I've heard the old IrAF Tu-22Bs are still there. The US officers - politely - told me to... "go away". I will try again during my next visit, however: anoying them further will either get me in or get me shot!

In the north, in the Samawah area, it was very peaceful - actually more peacefull than even in London. So much, that during the Ramadhan the caf?s and restaurants, as well as sweet-shps on the Euphrates River were open from 0700 AM until 0200 AM (well, that's at least when I went to bed). Children were playing football in the night-lit field near the river, others in the boats on the river, and the families as well as the Dutch troops deployed in the area were sitting together in the caf?s, smoking pipes, drinking tea etc.

The people of the town had set up a "neighbourhood watch" comitees and these were succesfull in stopping many attempted attacks by Wahhabi/al-Qaida and Ba'athists against the Dutch troops and the Iraqi police.

In this area north of Baghdad the electricity, water supply, and telephone service are available 24 hours a day. Even internet at my grandmother's home was functioning without problems. The mobile-phone service will start to function nation-wide on the 1st of January, 2004 (editor's remark: several European companies have already established their nets in the south and there was no problem contacting our relatives in Austria during the visit in Basrah, for example!). That, by the way, was the reason of my visit in Iraq: I work for the Mobile Telecom firm, which is building a network in central Iraq.

I went to the desert south of Baghdad where our associate company was building a new 400Kw high tension electricity pylons on a East-West line, from Daura to Iran (link up to iran's power lines for load balancing etc...). That group is a sub-contractor to Fluor and gets the money from the US Army: Gen. Hawkins of the US Army Engineering Corps is the boss. Interestingly they completed a 100km section in only 45 days, and have hired ex-militiamen from Saddam-opponent groups to guard the national electricity facilities - of course, after a "vetting" by the US military...

I took over 300 photos while in Iraq, and also videos of an abandoned Chinese-built YW-531 APC and a US military supply convoy on the Highway 1. These are the first few of my photos - and more is to follow!

Two OH-58Ds seen on a patrol over Baghdad...

OH-58D Kiowa Warrior underway over Baghdad.

An OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout helicopter seen near one of the US bases in Baghdad area, with an UH-60A Black Hawk seen parked behind the blast pents in the foreground.

Two Humvees seen in the field near Baghdad.

Sheeps and wolfs: sadly, the situation in the "Suni Triangle" (the area north-west between the Baghdad downtown, Falluja, and Tikrit) is still such that not always is it possible to clearly recognize who is who...

Like everywhere else in Iraq, all bases of the Coallition troops are well fortified and protected: only the watchtowers of this one are more prominent than usually.

...a look in the mirror while driving in Baghdad can sometimes reveal two 70-tonns M-1s behind you!

Two M-1A-1s from an unknown US unit underway in Iraq: the

During the Holly month of Ramadhan, the shops in the Baghdad area were opening only after the sunset, but then well-visited.

The Baghdad area is still littered with burnt-out wracks of many BMP-1s and BMP-2s, former mounts of the mechanized and armoured formations of the Republican Guards.

Many wrecks can still be found where destroyed: in the middle of the urban areas....

...inspecting the ambulance version of the Chinese-built YW-531 APC: before 1991 this was the most widespread APC within the Iraqi Army mechanized and armoured formations.