thedrifter
08-14-06, 05:21 AM
Posted on Mon, Aug. 14, 2006
Fallujah police officers avoid work after threats
By Solomon Moore
LOS ANGELES TIMES
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hundreds of newly recruited police officers in Fallujah failed to show up for work Sunday after insurgents disseminated pamphlets threatening officers who stayed on the job, according to police officials in the restive western Iraq city.
"We will kill all the policemen infidels," read the pamphlets, "whether or not they quit or are still in their jobs."
Fallujah Police Lt. Mohammed Alwan said that the force, which he estimated had increased to more than 2,000, has now shrunk to only 100.
Alwan said that insurgents have killed dozens of policemen in their homes and also attacked family members in a weekslong intimidation campaign.
A Fallujah police major, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to a fear of reprisals, said that at least 1,400 policemen had left their jobs since Friday, 400 of them police officials above the rank of officer.
"During the last three months more than 100 policemen were killed here," including a number of senior officers, the police major said.
Marine Lt. Lawton King, who is stationed in Fallujah, called those figures "inaccurate and grossly exaggerated," claiming that only 32 police officers had been assassinated since January and that "substantially fewer than the exaggerated 1,400" officers had failed to report for work.
The U.S. military has dispatched some units from Fallujah to Ramadi, a nearby insurgent hotspot, during the same period of time that police officials in Fallujah claim insurgents have mounted their intimidation campaign.
The Marines stationed in western Anbar province -- the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency -- have struggled to recruit police officers in Fallujah, which was the scene of major clashes in 2004 and has since remained under a strict Marine cordon and curfew.
The news came as a prominent Shiite militia leader called for the creation of "popular committees" in local neighborhoods to create the security that U.S. and Iraqi security forces have been unable to achieve.
Ellie
Fallujah police officers avoid work after threats
By Solomon Moore
LOS ANGELES TIMES
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Hundreds of newly recruited police officers in Fallujah failed to show up for work Sunday after insurgents disseminated pamphlets threatening officers who stayed on the job, according to police officials in the restive western Iraq city.
"We will kill all the policemen infidels," read the pamphlets, "whether or not they quit or are still in their jobs."
Fallujah Police Lt. Mohammed Alwan said that the force, which he estimated had increased to more than 2,000, has now shrunk to only 100.
Alwan said that insurgents have killed dozens of policemen in their homes and also attacked family members in a weekslong intimidation campaign.
A Fallujah police major, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to a fear of reprisals, said that at least 1,400 policemen had left their jobs since Friday, 400 of them police officials above the rank of officer.
"During the last three months more than 100 policemen were killed here," including a number of senior officers, the police major said.
Marine Lt. Lawton King, who is stationed in Fallujah, called those figures "inaccurate and grossly exaggerated," claiming that only 32 police officers had been assassinated since January and that "substantially fewer than the exaggerated 1,400" officers had failed to report for work.
The U.S. military has dispatched some units from Fallujah to Ramadi, a nearby insurgent hotspot, during the same period of time that police officials in Fallujah claim insurgents have mounted their intimidation campaign.
The Marines stationed in western Anbar province -- the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency -- have struggled to recruit police officers in Fallujah, which was the scene of major clashes in 2004 and has since remained under a strict Marine cordon and curfew.
The news came as a prominent Shiite militia leader called for the creation of "popular committees" in local neighborhoods to create the security that U.S. and Iraqi security forces have been unable to achieve.
Ellie