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Kurdish drivers say they are targeted by kidnappers
on a major Iraqi highway.
Muhammed Ameen Mahmood has been driving on the road
from Sulaimaniyah to Baghdad for two decades, but
has vowed to steer clear of it after being injured
in a terrifying kidnapping incident.
He's one of many Kurdish drivers who are taking
longer and less convenient routes to and from the
Iraqi capital until security is stepped up on what
locals are now calling "Death Road".
The 43-year-old taxi driver told IWPR that his
ordeal began a couple of hours after he had picked
up a passenger in Baghdad and headed for
Sulaimaniyah.
A car drove up alongside him and the armed men
inside gestured to him to pull over, but Mahmood
sped up, hoping to reach the safety of the Hamreen
mountains and the Kurdish area of Iraq.
However, he was unable to outrun his pursuers.
"After they caught up with me, three gunmen fired
shots over my car and I was forced to stop. As soon
as I did, they pulled me out of the car and shot me
in the foot I use to operate the accelerator,"
Mahmood told IWPR.
The gunmen put him and the passenger into the boot
of their Daewoo car and took them to a village
nearby. They were then forced to phone their
families and ask that a ransom be paid for their
release, otherwise they would be beheaded.
But Mahmood, who has 13 children, can barely support
his family on his earnings, and warned his abductors
that no ransom could be paid.
"When they realised that our families did not have
any money, they released us that night," he
continued. "We were dumped on the main road - and if
we hadn't been released near a roadside restaurant,
I would have bled to death."
Mahmood is one of many Kurdish drivers who have
faced gunmen known locally as the Hamreen
Highwaymen. The number of incidents have increased
rapidly since the beginning of 2005, leading many
drivers to take a much longer - but safer - route to
Baghdad through Baquubah to the east.
The Kurdish drivers claim Arab drivers on the
Sulaimaniyah-Baghdad road are not targeted.
Fuad Arif Khumayyis, who represents the Kurdish
drivers who use the route, told IWPR that 14 cars
have been ambushed to date. "All those kidnapped
have been released, most after paying some form of
ransom," he said. "However, not all of the cars have
been recovered."
General Anwar Hamad Ameen, commander of the Iraqi
National Guard in Kirkuk, agrees that violent crime
on the highways is a very real problem.
"I have asked the interior ministry to form a
special regiment to be deployed in the Ozem area,
and they've agreed to do so," he said.
"It used to be only bandits and thieves who were
involved, but now insurgents are doing it as well -
and it's not easy to distinguish between the two
groups. The main danger is on the 50-kilometre
stretch between the towns of Khalis and Ozem, and
this could be patrolled by around a thousand
soldiers."
However, Ameen told IWPR that no date had yet been
set for the deployment of such a force due to
administrative problems.
In the meantime, Osman Faizullah Narullah - who was
also targeted by the robbers - told IWPR that he
would continue to use the main road because the
alternative, via Baaqubah, is in such poor
condition.
"I have come to believe that the Death Road of Ozem
is better than the Baaqubah road," he said. "I know
one doesn't get kidnapped or killed on the Baaqubah
road but driving on it is a form of psychological
torture."
Sirwan Ghareeb is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Iraq.
www.iwpr.net
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