Siding with Americans risky for Iraqis

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2003/11/06/national/a02110603_02.txt

FALLUJAH, Iraq — As mayor of Fallujah, Taha Bedawi took pride in his close ties to the U.S. military, hanging certificates of merit from the Army on the wall behind his desk.

Now, he is being forced out of office after residents turned against him with guns and gasoline bombs.

The end of Bedawi's tenure underlines the predicament faced by Iraqis who help the U.S.-led coalition, risking charges of being collaborators or even assassination.

‘‘Not even the Prophet Muhammad would be a good mayor here as long as American soldiers are protecting him,'' said 1st Lt. Haitham Abdel-Wahab, a Fallujah police officer.

At least four locally prominent figures who worked closely with the U.S.-run coalition — a police chief, two judges and a deputy mayor of Baghdad — have been assassinated in the past two weeks. A member of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council was slain earlier.

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