Word: tribesmen
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...help against Kurdish attacks on their people in Kirkuk, an hour and a half to the northwest, he said, adding he might have to send fighters if the raids continue. "Our tribes are well armed", the governor remarked. "Very well armed," I countered, remembering the group of Ajil tribesmen just outside Tikrit who had briefly detained me in mid April, when the city fell during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Marwan, who had heard the story, filled in the details. "That's my tribe," the governor said, high-fiving me. "Did they treat you well?" he asked. "They released...
...been a crappy day, but an instructive one. A heavily armed gas station, homicidally angry tribesmen and a growing headache for the U.S. Tikrit has always had the reputation as a nasty place for outsiders, and I'm beginning to understand...
...villagers along the road, and that could quickly become a political problem for the U.S. On Monday, a few hours after the Marines moved into Tikrit, we drove down from Kirkuk. Just before the bridge that leads to the city, we were stopped at an impromptu checkpoint. Armed Arab tribesmen invited us - without the option of refusal - to meet their sheik, Said Badr Alihani. They led us along the dusty side roads of their settlement, where we noticed scouts strategically positioned along...
...frantically waving for us to turn back. We went on a little further to see what was happening. Bad idea: Bullets whistled past us, much closer than we needed, and we pulled back a few hundred meters. People retreating from the area said it was the Ajil again. The tribesmen had dug in by the roadside, said they'd come under attack from looters, and were in a very ugly mood. The Ajil reinforced the point by spraying us again, from closer range. They seemed to have another position nearby...
...slowly, slowly unscrewing the car's number plate. The Arabs would not like the plate, he muttered - incomprehensible, as the previous day he said we had Baghdad plates, perfect for this part of the country. Removing the plates was, in itself, a dangerous act given the inflamed situation. The tribesmen could easily have assumed that the car had just been stolen, and act accordingly. I also had visions of Karim charging the checkpoint instead of stopping to chat. So I fired him. He leaves for his hometown Suleymaniya this evening, with a nice bonus. This is a pain...