Unsafe Haven

Iraqis say Green Zone safety was always more a mirage than an oasis. They've remained susceptible to killings, kidnappings and threats from those who see their very presence in the Zone as a traitorous collaboration with the enemy. But the recent escalation has rattled even the most stoic. Khairiya Mousa Jafar, headmistress of Al-Elaf Girls' Secondary School, says it has had "a great psychological effect" at the 150-student facility. The kids are scared. "You cannot tell when or where it's going to hit," she says. "But, you know, it makes us share the suffering that happens in other parts of Baghdad." At the Master of Prices supermarket in the Al-Qadisiya apartment block, Iraqi civilians, police and expats still shop for groceries. The manager, Najim, says people stay indoors more. He used to buy stock from Jamilla market at the entrance to Sadr City, but fierce fighting between Iraqi Army troops and militias has forced him to shop in Karada, across the 14th of July Bridge. That means less profit, but he's not complaining too loudly. "I'm glad to be here in the Green Zone. I prefer a mortar to a car bomb," he says.

U.S. military leaders insist they are striving to make both the Green Zone and Sadr City safer for their inhabitants. Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, who has directed much of the action against Shiite fighters in Sadr City, says he was motivated largely by a desire to take out the brigades that have been shelling the Zone. "I went into Sadr City for the rockets," he says. He says his campaign has succeeded but acknowledges that insurgents could launch rockets from elsewhere. About 80 percent of the mortars and rockets that hit the Zone come in from Sadr City, some 10 miles away. "There is no mistaking the fact that the enemy was using Thawra and Jamilla neighborhoods to fire rockets and mortars out of," says Stover. "They were using school playgrounds, soccer fields, and other open areas.  By going into south Sadr City we took the enemy out of his comfort zone.  It initially denied him his point of origins sites for their rocket and mortar attacks.  The attack last night did not occur from those POO sites. Though it did come from Sadr City."

U.S. military officials have been careful when identifying the militants, reluctant to finger Moqtada al-Sadr's Jaish al-Mahdi, or Mahdi Army, because they still hope the radical cleric will avoid a full-scale war and instead seek a political solution. They employ a different lexicon altogether.  "We believe these criminal activities are the work of special groups," Stover says. "We define special groups as those who are not in compliance with Moqtada al-Sadr's freeze.  They are involved in kidnapping, murder, intimidation, smuggling, EFP [explosively formed projectiles], and indirect fire [rockets and mortar] attacks against the [Iraqi government], Iraqi people and their security forces and U.S. soldiers - in short they're criminals.  Common thugs most cases - along the lines of organized crime.  They have different cells, with different criminal specialties."

Even as the sandstorms hindered the military's ability to strike back at the attackers, U.S. military leaders said they were confident that Zone warning procedures, which include sirens, are effective. "This is still the safest piece of the battlefield many of us have served," says Army Col. Jerry O'Hara. Indeed, it should get safer for embassy employees, who will soon move to new quarters. The State Department last week certified as ready for occupancy the mammoth new embassy complex—including more than 25 salmon-colored buildings—on 104 acres along the Tigris River. The largest U.S. embassy in the world, it will come in at a cost of more than $700 million, compared with its original price tag of $592 million. Some staffers have already been sleeping there, authorized by Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who acted at the height of the Green Zone attacks last month. Both Crocker and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, nominated to succeed Gen. David Petraeus as U.S. commander in Iraq, are expected to have their headquarters in the new complex. At just the time some U.S. personnel are getting queasy about their tenure in Baghdad, the State Department also warned American diplomats that they may be required to work in Iraq in 2009 if not enough people volunteer to fill openings. "That should go over well here, given recent events," says a current embassy staffer.

Before the Easter Sunday assault, residents jogged, biked and drove around the Zone, negotiating checkpoints with patience and even good humor. They sunned themselves at Liberty Pool, once the domain of Saddam and his posse, popped into Freedom House for spaghetti and conversation, walked to work listening to downloaded music on their iPods. Arrighi regularly hosted pizza night at his office/home, teasing guests with the recipe his mother passed to him. In recent weeks most have grown more circumspect, not sure when or where a rocket might land. Some make sure they know where duck-and-covers are located, although they're not sure it makes sense to abandon their cars and seek cover. "This is very unnerving," says Arrighi. "But then, this is not the Emerald City. If you are terrified about being here and think you should leave, you probably should." For many here, though, that's not an option.

© 2008