Hussein was completing an English final Monday morning when he heard explosions nearby in the mixed Baghdad neighborhood of Saidiyah, he told us over the phone. The 15-year-old continued to write. Then he heard a gun battle and tried hard to focus on his test, a government exam for all ninth-graders. But suddenly the sounds were close. A gun battle ensued outside his high school and he heard men shouting and people running through the hallways.
Four National Police Commandoes walked into his classroom. Commandoes are known to be infiltrated by Shiite militias. The teacher walked towards them.
"Who are you and what do you want?" he asked.
"Wekhir (Remove yourself)," they shouted. The teacher backed away and the uniformed men demanded that the teens take out their National Identification Cards. They checked the names and tribal affiliations, which often signify what Muslim sect a person is from; Sunni or Shiite. Hussein is a Shiite. He was left alone.
"We escaped death," he told us.
Men's shouting echoed from other classrooms and Hussein looked out the windows as commandoes took at least three of his fellow students to their vehicles; three police pick ups and two civilian cars. Two school guards were also taken.
Teachers ran after them.
"Where are you taking them," they cried out.
“These are not to be trusted,” the commandoes replied, referring to the young teen-agers.
"They were entrusted to us, we are their safekeepers," they said.
Were you afraid, we asked Hussein.
"Of course we were not afraid," he said, a macho teen-age response. "But my knees were rattling."
He looked at the last question on the test and started to write.
Please help me. Everyone is running for their lives. I can’t continue...
I just found your blog. Your writing is in my local newspaper The Kansas City Star along with Scott's. All your staff in Baghdad are very special people. You are a group of very good story tellers. It's such a sad story to have tell day after day. I keep waiting for something good to happen over there.
Posted by: ljm | June 18, 2007 at 06:13 PM
And the answer is: ? If we leave the blood bath will go on; if we stay the blood bath will go on. I suppose we have to ask whch blood bath will cause less horror. I suggest we made a mistake in going in; that to continue there compounds the original mistake. It is time to leave. Surely, working among themselves without the additional irritant of occupiers would bring the people to a less bloody solution. Even more so, why do we want to be implicit in such horrors as we read about in the instant article? I know we caused it but since there is no way to stop it, we should not be arming one side this day and the other the next. Let the Iraqis take care of the Iraqis.
Posted by: Llyonnoc | June 19, 2007 at 08:48 AM
Four days later--6/22--any word on these teenagers and their teachers? This is an utterly harrowing story. I am surprised that it is only to be found in your column, Leila, and not on the front pages of major news papers.
Who are we, who are in the world are we, to be unmoved by this story?
Posted by: Laura | June 22, 2007 at 12:58 AM
Four days later--6/22--any word on these teenagers and their teachers? This is an utterly harrowing story. I am surprised that it is only to be found in your column, Leila, and not on the front pages of major news papers.
Who are we, who are in the world are we, to be unmoved by this story?
Posted by: Laura | June 22, 2007 at 12:58 AM
Four days later--6/22--any word on these teenagers and their teachers? This is an utterly harrowing story. I am surprised that it is only to be found in your column, Leila, and not on the front pages of major news papers.
Who are we, who are in the world are we, to be unmoved by this story?
Posted by: Laura | June 22, 2007 at 12:59 AM