Telegraph | News | Chalabi's fighters accused of lawlessness
By Sandra Laville in Nasiriyah
(Filed: 18/04/2003)
Elements of Ahmad Chalabi's Pentagon-backed army have been accused by American troops of lawlessness.
US marines stationed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah complain that they have been ordered to hand assault rifles taken from groups of looters and remnants of the old regime to members of Mr Chalabi's Free Iraqi Forces.
"You can imagine, it's a bit of a heartbreaker," said a sergeant. "We take the weapons off one lot and hand them over to these guys."
Mr Chalabi, the former banker favoured by the Pentagon to lead post-Saddam Iraq, has left his headquarters in an old Iraqi army base near Ur, where more than 600 of his fighters were stationed, to set himself up in Baghdad.
While many of his men are Iraqi exiles trained by the Americans others have been hired since the war ended.
Local people say young men hired for $200 (�130) each have been tearing through the streets in pick-up trucks, carrying assault rifles chanting pro-Chalabi slogans. Some say they have been stealing cars at gunpoint.
By Sandra Laville in Nasiriyah
(Filed: 18/04/2003)
Elements of Ahmad Chalabi's Pentagon-backed army have been accused by American troops of lawlessness.
US marines stationed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah complain that they have been ordered to hand assault rifles taken from groups of looters and remnants of the old regime to members of Mr Chalabi's Free Iraqi Forces.
"You can imagine, it's a bit of a heartbreaker," said a sergeant. "We take the weapons off one lot and hand them over to these guys."
Mr Chalabi, the former banker favoured by the Pentagon to lead post-Saddam Iraq, has left his headquarters in an old Iraqi army base near Ur, where more than 600 of his fighters were stationed, to set himself up in Baghdad.
While many of his men are Iraqi exiles trained by the Americans others have been hired since the war ended.
Local people say young men hired for $200 (�130) each have been tearing through the streets in pick-up trucks, carrying assault rifles chanting pro-Chalabi slogans. Some say they have been stealing cars at gunpoint.
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