CAIRO, September 12 (IslamOnline.net) – Dying to enjoy freedom and a better life, Iraqis, Sunnis and Shiites, welcomed the US forces ousting Saddam Hussein's regime, but with the US invasion-turned occupation, Iraqis found no other option but to take up arms against the occupation forces, a leading British newspaper said Sunday, September 12 .
"It gave me a glimpse of a better life. When I heard that the Americans were coming to liberate Iraq I was very happy. I felt that I would be able to live well, travel and have freedom. I wanted to do more sport, get new appliances and a new car and develop my life. I thought the US would come here and our lives would be changed through 180 degrees," The Observer quoted an Iraqi resistance man as saying.
Abu Mujahed, an Iraqi Sunni, said the US forces came to Iraq just to destroy the country.
"When I saw the American soldiers watching and doing nothing as people took everything, I began to suspect the US was not here to help us but to destroy us."
Feeling the mounting anger among the different sects of the Iraqi people, Abu Mujahed believed that he had to do something to stop the American atrocities against innocent Iraqi people.
"We realized. We had to act," the British daily quoted him as saying.
With a group of Iraqi men, Abu Mujahed formed a resistance group to fight the occupation forces in the war-torn country.
With their first resistance operation against the US forces turning into a fiasco, Abu Mujahed, his real name is not known, insisted to go on.
"One day we try and snipe them, the next we use an IED (Improvised Explosive Device), the next a mine. We never get any orders from anybody. We are just told: 'Today you should do something', but it is up to us to decide what and when."
The US launched war on Iraq in March 2003 to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime under pretexts of possessing weapons of mass destruction, which the US occupation forces never found.
Shame of Occupation
Seeing his country under occupation and with the Americans killing innocent people and destroying mosques, Abu Mujahed vowed to sweat blood to drive the invading American forces out of the country.
"We are under occupation. They bomb the mosques, they kill a huge number of people. There is no greater shame than to see your country being occupied."
Abu Mujahed denied allegations that the Iraqi resistance operations are financed by Al-Qaeda network.
"Often sympathizers buy cars in Saudi Arabia or Jordan and we get them driven to Baghdad or Basra and we sell them. A supporter in the UK has recently sent an Opel pick-up. But most of our money comes from local people who support what we do but can't fight themselves," the British daily quoted him as explaining.
"Some have no allegiance to any group, others have so much money they must come from Al-Qaeda. It is impossible to work with them. They are bloody people, far too irrational. They do not care if they kill innocent Iraqi people. They are terrorists."
The unabated Iraqi resistance has played its toll on the United States military death toll which passed1 ,000, nearly 18 months after the invasion, making its mark on the US presidential election campaign.
Click to read the full article on the Observer..