Here, There, Every Where
So that Iraqi Salam Pax blog is back. Meanwhile, the Spanish are running Umm Qasr, much to the regret of some of its inhabitants.
It was meant to be different. The port town of Umm Qasr was where the American flag was first raised at the end of March by excited US marines scenting the coalition victory that would soon spread across Iraq.
In the early days, after the first battle of the war was won and the sporadic resistance subdued, many of Umm Qasr’s residents came out of their mud-brick houses to welcome the invaders. Now they throw stones at the military.
The Americans have moved on, their presence marked only by the endless convoys of trucks rolling north out of Kuwait towards Baghdad to service the occupying army and the US-led interim administration.
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Control of Umm Qasr has been handed to the Spanish, whose soldiers rarely venture far beyond their heavily guarded headquarters inside the port.
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“Everyone was happy when the soldiers came here to get rid of the old regime but now people are wondering what this so-called freedom has brought them,” said the director of the local hospital, Dr Akram Gataa.