Who?

"Who's the enemy?" distraught Iraqis wonder
by Luke Baker, Reuters, July 25, 2005

As Iraq spirals deeper by the day into violence and lawlessness, Baghdad residents say brutality and corruption are spreading among the very security forces that are supposed to be protecting them.

Some maintain that the situation has grown so bad that at times they can't distinguish the behaviour of U.S.-trained Iraqi police and soldiers from that of militants or criminals.

And since insurgents have in the past infiltrated the police and army, at times it is impossible to tell the sides apart.

"Sometimes we don't know who the enemy is," said Ismael Mahmoud, a 32-year-old businessman whose cousin was recently seized by a special police unit and later found dead.