Troops facing increasingly aggressive kids

Troops facing increasingly aggressive kids
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, September 15, 2008

JISR DIYALA, Iraq — –The soldiers began Thursday with the best intentions.

They had a trailer filled with close to 200 water filters that they wanted to give to residents of Jisr Diyala in southeast Baghdad to offer them at least one source of clean water. The distribution started out smoothly, but neighbors soon caught wind of the freebies.

Soon a mob of children too young to even use a water filter harangued the soldiers to hand over the colorful boxes. Boys shoved aside women to get to the boxes. Women handed off boxes to their children and tried to get another filter —– or two or three. The soldiers yelled, ""Imchi!" —"go away –— and held back the crowd from the truck to ensure each family got just one filter.

At last, the soldiers closed the sides on the trailer and prepared to head back for more filters, but an angry Iraqi boy had one final shot for the Americans. He hurled a small, sharp piece of tile at the trailer and hit Cpl. James Anderson in the neck.

The incident did not surprise the soldiers, who were expecting some rock throwing before they even left their base Thursday morning. While shooting in the Jisr Diyala area has all but stopped, soldiers must still face kids with rocks.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57415