U.S. troops turn to politicking in Samarra

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U.S. troops turn to politicking in Samarra
By Michael Gisick, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, November 27, 2009

SAMARRA, Iraq - Samarra has been on the precipice enough times as Iraq appeared to tumble over that tensions here, like arguments at the edge of a cliff, bear close watching.

So when the standoff between Samarra’s Sunni mayor and the commander of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi forces stationed in the city escalated late last month, American officers at their small base near the Tigris River took notice.

At issue were the concrete blast barriers known as T-Walls. Some 30,000 of them line Samarra’s bullet-pocked streets, and the Americans were paying a local contractor to begin removing a selected few from the edges of the city.

But the Iraqi commander, the politically connected Gen. Rasheed Flahe Muhammed, had his own ideas.

Late one night, the T-Walls protecting the mayor’s office were hauled away. Sitting between other buildings still hidden behind their grey parapets, the office now looked oddly out of place, like an obvious target.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66327