IRAQ: DESPERATE IRAQIS BESIEGE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE HEADQUARTER SEARCHING FOR DETAINED RELATIVES

Record ID: 402172

  • Title: IRAQ: DESPERATE IRAQIS BESIEGE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE HEADQUARTER SEARCHING FOR DETAINED RELATIVES
  • Date: 11th April 2003
  • Summary: (W4) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (APRIL 11 ,2003) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS OF IRAQ'S MILITARY INTELLIGENCE 0.05 2. VARIOUS OF CROWDS IN GROUNDS OUTSIDE THE HEADQUARTERS 0.14 3. SLV MAN WALKING OUT OF BUILDING, WITH PICTURE UNDER HIS ARM 0.17 4. CLOSE UP OF HOLE IN THE GROUND SHOWING UNDERGROUND ROOM 0.35 5. W
  • Embargoed: 26th April 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAE6F2GJJDKPR69WJVQ8P5PK46U
  • Story Text: Hundreds of desperate Iraqi civilians have besieged the
    national headquarters of Iraq's military intelligence,
    searching for relatives they said had been detained there.



    A Reuters correspondent, speaking from the northwestern
    Baghdad district of Kadhimiya, said on Friday (April 11, 2003)
    relatives and others were appealing for help from the U.S.

    military to rescue people they said were in underground jails.

    "They say they are sure there are people who have been
    here for days without food and may be dying," he said, adding
    that people in the crowd were asking where the U.S. forces
    were.

    The General Headquarters of Iraqi military intelligence
    near the Kadhimiya mosque, a shrine for Shi'ite Muslims, was
    one of the most feared places in the Iraqi capital under the
    rule of Saddam Hussein.

    Many Iraqi civilians searched the damaged interior of the
    headquarters for their relatives, whilst others waited
    anxiously outside.

    "They're in there, they're in there they're under the
    ground," said a man in the crowd.

    There were more scenes of anarchy and chaos elsewhere in
    Baghdad. Looting, which began when U.S. tanks and troops swept
    through the city on Wednesday (April 9), continued in some
    areas and sporadic fighting broke out in others.

    Military sources said local gunmen had fired on Fedayeen
    militia in Saddam City, a sprawling, largely Shi'ite district
    in northeast Baghdad. Shi'ites were disadvantaged under long
    Sunni rule, including the last three decades under Saddam.


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