Residents Resent House Invaders

Sahar al-Haideri

Friday, 18 November, 2005

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As Akram and his family watched television in their Mosul home last winter, the reception suddenly cut out.

They all laughed when Amar, his ten-year-old son jokingly blamed it on the Americans.

But when Akram climbed up to the roof the following day to fix the satellite dish, he was shocked to find six United States soldiers sleeping there, with another standing guard.

Akram hurried downstairs to tell his wife. “What can we do?” he asked her. “I can’t leave the house to got to work, and leave you alone while the American forces are upstairs.”

From roadblocks to intermittent gas and electricity supply, Iraqis are used to dealing with inconveniences in their everyday lives. The use of their rooftops by American soldiers – as vantage points for observation and sniping – is often just another to add to the list.

But when things turn violent, the practice can quickly become more than just a hassle.

Locals say troops sometimes commandeer a roof for just a few hours, sometimes no more than a few minutes. On other occasions, however, they may stay for a day or more.

Residents are often reluctant to allow soldiers into their homes. But many feel they have little choice in the matter, fearing repercussions if they object.

“If we refuse, they will arrest us or kill us for not cooperating,” said Mosul resident Ibrahim Abdulhadi.

Another local Mahmud Adeeb said a group of American soldiers who came to his house didn’t even knock. “I ran to see what was happening and saw an American patrol pushing through the door, asking to be led to the roof,” he said.

“I did what they asked without any discussion,” he went on. “They stayed two days and ordered us not to leave the house. It was a nightmare.”

Besides being used as a place to hang laundry and relax, people often sleep on their roof in the summer to escape the sweltering heat, especially when power shortages put the air conditioning out of action.

But a visit by US troops rules out this option. “Whenever the American forces come to use the roofs in a crisis,” said Karema Um Ahmed, “we have to stay downstairs, inside the hot rooms.”

English teacher Siham Mustafa said that when US troops came to her house looking for an inconspicuous place from which to monitor suspected insurgents, her main concern was for her two daughters, aged 18 and 20.

“The roof is open, feel free. But leave the house for us,” Mustafa told the soldiers in English, since they had no translator with them.

“Actually they did as I asked them to do,” she said. “They stayed on the roof until the morning.

“But I put my girls in one of the rooms and locked it. My husband, son and I stayed in the hall to watch what would happen. It was the most difficult night in all my life.”

In most cases, having American soldiers on the roof is nothing more than an inconvenience.

But, as trader Luqman Ayub discovered, it can also prove very dangerous.

Soon after US troops arrived at Ayub’s home and asked to use his roof, a firefight erupted between them and the bodyguards of a local politician. For four hours, the two sides shot at each other as local residents cowered in their homes.

“When they stopped firing, the roof was full of bullets,” he said, adding that three civilians were wounded in the crossfire.

Abdullah Qasim – an ex-resident of Baghdad who now lives in Aqrah, 90 kilometres north of Mosul – said that in his experience, the soldiers themselves can also pose a danger.

“I will never ever forget the day the Americans came into my house and damaged everything they saw,” he said, adding that the troops had hit him in the face and broken his nose.

Sahar al-Haideri is an IWPR trainee in Mosul.