10.00.00

Bombing, bloodied bodies

Peace continues to avoid Baghdad like the plague.  Violence and chaos are still hallmarks of everyday life here.  And while the bloodied victims of the anarchy are still being stretchered into the city’s overcrowded hospitals, Iraqi patience is wearing thin.

00’25

 Abdul Jabbar Al Kubaisy,

Leader of the Iraqi Patriotic Coalition (also translated as Iraqi National Alliance, Iraqi National coalition etc.)

‘The Occupation of our country: They are controlling everything, they are stealing everything, they are destroying our history our museums, they are killing our children”

 00.29

US troops in humvee pan

Americans came to Iraq expecting to make friends, but appear only to be making enemies.

Natsot

 00.35

Burning humvee

And with the attacks on US convoys increasing daily, more and more innocent Iraqis are getting caught in the crossfire.

 00.45

Angry room of women and injured children

And each new child killed breeds more resentment against the occupation.

 00’53

 Baghdad GV

As night falls, Baghdad readies for the next attack.

 00’

Night drive to resistance

We were driven to a secret location 40 minutes East of Baghdad to meet one of the resistance cells behind such attacks.

fighter room

Natsot

01’01 

fighter room

The Whitehouse has always insisted the resistance is foreign mujahideen and Saddam loyalists, but in this room we found ordinary young Iraqis insistent the majority of the population support their actions..

 01’29

Fighter interview

 IV VO: Only a few in this nation do not support us. Most people are with us. Most people in Iraq are with the freedom fighters.

Direct Iraqi translation: “I will not exclude from the nation but a few that would not support us. Most people are with us. Most people in Iraq are with the freedom fighters. Most of the people are with the resistance. Most of the people.”

Sync fighter talking about weaponry.

UPSOT: This rocket can hit a tank or armoured vehicle from over 300m away.

 01’43

Fighters with guns

It’s cells like these, armed with home-made powder tubes, Kalashnikovs and rockets who are mounting up to 35 attacks a day against US targets. 

Fighter interview

Just over one month ago.  We blew up seven tanks, seven tanks and the occupants. The number of dead is not clear. But No-one came out alive.

Katyusha brought out

UPSOT:

Saruuk Katyoshka

A guerrilla shows us a Katyusha rocket.  This is the same type of rocket that was used so devastatingly in attacks against otherwise impregnable US compounds.

UPSOT.

al Kubaisy

Who is the terrorist?  Mr Bush and his army are the terrorists.  We are fighting for freedom, we want our country to be free.

Alongside the military campaign, political resistance is also blossoming. Abdul Jabbar Al Kubaisy was a leading opponent of Saddam. Now he has returned from 23 years exile to lead the fight against the Occupation. 

al Kubaisy

We are Iraqi politicians, opposition to the past regime, but we are also joining all the movements in the world against the American and British war in Iraq.

Shiekhs;

And as well as uniting opposition groups around the world, Al Kubaisy has also found plentiful support in Iraq [itself].

Sheikhs  greeting

Natsot

sheikhs Sweep, Al Kubaisy with sheiks.

This group of 35 sheikhs and tribal elders claims to hold sway over more than 3 million Iraqis, both Sunni and Shia. Al Kubaisy has called them together to ask help in uniting Iraq against the occupation.

Al Kubaisy (speaking to room of Sheiks)

The fighters against occupation are the ones who keep Iraq united. And God willing, you are the fighters, you are the people who will keep Iraq united. With the strength of your sons that are in arms against the occupiers, Iraq will be liberated, united and victorious.

Sheiks nodding, murmuring assent,

There is little doubt these influential sheikhs are right behind al Kubaisy

sheik turky talal (head of the tribe al gurtan)

We will drive the Americans out if it takes 100 years. 

(Al Kubaisy listening)

:

sheik turky talal

(tribe is in yousufyia 20 km south of bagdad it is a big tribe)

First, we will fight them with our religion.. Mohammad and Islam. Second we have weapons that will last us 100 years. Third, all the sheikhs and their tribes have agreed not to leave even one American in Iraq

 5’11

 Prayers

The fiercely proud Sheikhs have a long tradition of resistance.  In the 1920s they united to oppose the British rule, just as they are again.  And although many tribal leaders undoubtedly profited from Saddam’s patronage, it is difficult to think of them as die hard Ba’ath loyalists.

Kubaisy

you can’t say these people are pro Sadaam.  But they are against the Occupation!

Iraqi officer with gun searching cars

Finding the resistance is like searching for a needle in a haystack. The Coalition are faced with a nearly impossible task.  And as the number of resistance attacks grow, more and more poorly trained and inexperienced Iraqis have been recruited into the security services.

Police protests

But the huge costs of paying them have meant a radical slashing of their salaries. Outside the Coalition Headquarters in Baghdad, these Iraqi security guards are protesting the cuts. Their supervisor worries the lower pay could lead to guards themselves joining the resistance.

Police interview

I was to get 120.  The next month I should get 75.  It’s bullshit. That make big problem.  I mean the security. All them have the job, to search the car, to search the human. If someone breaks up the, if someone, maybe he join the security fighters, the terrorist party. That make big problem.

Baghdad g/v’s rubble

The problem for the Americans is that they’re stuck between prioritising civilian reconstruction and dealing with the resistance. As the civilian problems get worse, more Iraqis join the freedom fighters. It’s a catch 22.

Al Kubaisy with map, phone and plotters

The emergence of al Kubaisy from the shadows must be a huge worry for the Americans. As he plots his next steps, the apparently cohesive support base he has cultivated seems to represent the first popular entity, backed by an army of footsoldiers, to emerge in the new Iraq.

Al Kubaisy

How long he can stand this, Mr Bush, that is a question for Mr Bush.  For us, we will continue for ever. Til, Bush decide when he will leave.  So he will understand. We don’t know. We have to fight, fight we will fight ‘til Mr Bush, he say we want to leave.  We say OK, Thank you.  At that time  we will say bye bye!

Fighters in room

On their own these fighters are easily dismissed as adhoc extremists. But as distinct political movements grow in parallel to the grass-roots fighters, in a classical formula seen around the world,  it now seems they should not be taken lightly.

Fighter bite

 IV VO: If we have light weapons then we will fight with those, if we need to use rockets, we will do so.

If however, we need to sacrifice our own bodies then we are all for it.

Direct Iraqi translation: “If we have light weapons then we might fight with it, if we need to use martyr we rest with it, if we need to use rockets we fight with it, if however, we need to use our own body to sacrifice then we are all for it.”

Burned Humvee

The occupation is seen by so many Iraqis as a humiliation. As the US now desperately searches for an exit strategy there’s a growing sense that those against them in Iraq not only want them gone, but driven out bloodied and demoralized.

High shot Baghdad

It is unlikely any withdrawal Washington can muster will be taken lying down by the resistance.

9:00

END