Vast swathes of desert areas around Baghdad are rife with Iraqi military junk

By Aws Al-Sharqy, IOL Baghdad Correspondent

BAGHDAD, July 2 (IslamOnline.net) – Driven jobless by the U.S.-led occupation authorities and the invasion, hundreds of Iraqis are trying to make a living, even while risking their lives, selling parts of the now junk Iraqi weapons arsenal which in the past irritated several world countries.

Iraqis go on rummaging through heaps of burnt tanks, military vehicles and warplanes simply to eke out a day living.

Vast swathes of desert areas around Baghdad abound now in such junk left by the U.S.-led war on the oil-rich country.

Iraqis now collect the bodies of burnt helicopters and warplanes and melt them into ingots to be used in different industries, such as producing unstill and satellite dishes.

Ironically enough, the U.S. occupation troops have not miss out on making use of this and started hammering out trade deals with giant Japanese firms to sell such junk.

U.S. troops launched a large-scale campaign to collect all weapons and prevented Iraqis from approaching with the sign "X" emblazoned on them.

"We work in detaching weapons and military equipment and selling them as separate parts…We have no other jobs to make out a living," Ebeid al-Shamri told IslamOnline.net.

"The U.S. promises are nothing but sheer lies, even our supply rations have been reduced, so what can we do?" Ebeid wondered.

"We must provide for our children and pay our flat rents…Every morning we go out and bear such searing sun and we barely eke out a living, but the U.S. troops prevented us from taking valid weapon," he added.

Zaher Fayyad, another jobless Iraqi, told IOL that some Americans and Japanese people ordered them to steer clear of these junk weapon, because they had been sold to a Japanese firm.

"There are huge piles of tanks and armored vehicles and we only take small parts of them and sell them as car spare parts, which witnessed sky-rocketing hikes recently," Fayyad lamented. 

Hunger

An Iraqi detaching a tank's engine

The harassment of U.S. troops, the searing sun and the possibility of a sudden ammunition dump explosion have not deterred jobless Iraqis from detaching military equipment, given that "hunger is crueler."

On Monday, June 30, several Iraqis were killed in an explosion at an ammunition dump in Haditha, 260 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

"We and not the Americans are entitled to make use of such junk, because they are not theirs at the first place," said Kareem al-Ebeidi in an interview with IOL.

"What did the U.S. do to us? It stole our oil, laid us off, cut off water and electricity and brought nothing but drugs, crimes and scourge of war," he charged.

"And after all that, it now seizes even the junk weapons and military equipment," complained al-Ebeidi angrily.

"It is not safe here…weapons and missiles have become the butter and bread for many Iraqis, who regard bread more important than democracy clichés. We do not care about the danger here because it is everywhere now," Ramadan Jasim, a tomb watchman, told IOL.

Jasim added that unknown persons come and take unexploded missiles and bombs, noting that they might use them in resisting the U.S. troops in Iraq.

A former Brig. Gen. with the disbanded Iraqi army told IOL on June 21 that he saw Al-Samoud 2 missiles left behind by the ousted Iraqi regime near a U.S. military base, 15km from Baghdad airport, which hosts the largest airfield of U.S. Apache and Cobra helicopters and a myriad of tanks and armored vehicles.

The Anglo-American occupation of Iraq has left Iraq 's workforce, some 10 million Iraqis in both the private and public sectors jobless, economic experts told the London-based Al-Quds Press news agency on June 11.

The laying-off of the Iraqi army, the dissolution of the defense, interior and information ministries left up to five million Iraqis unemployed.

On June 9, hundreds of unemployed Iraqis demonstrated in the southern capital of Basra against the employment of Asian oil workers by U.S. companies.

The Democratic Workers Union in Basra slammed the employment of Asian workers by Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), at a time Iraqis face massive unemployment following the collapse of public services as well as disbanding of the army and security forces.