The looting and killing of today has changed from the looting and killing in April. In April, it was quite random. Criminals were working alone. Now they�re more organized than the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) and the troops combined. No one works alone anymore- they�ve created gangs and armed militias. They pull up to houses in minivans and SUVs, armed with machineguns and sometimes grenades. They barge into the house and demand money and gold. If they don�t find enough, they abduct a child or female and ask for ransom. Sometimes the whole family is killed- sometimes only the male members of the family are killed.
For a while, the men in certain areas began arranging �lookouts�. They would gather, every 6 or 7 guys, in a street, armed with Klashnikovs, and watch out for the whole area. They would stop strange cars and ask them what family they were there to visit. Hundreds of looters were caught that way- we actually felt safe for a brief period. Then the American armored cars started patrolling the safer residential areas, ordering the men off the streets- telling them that if they were seen carrying a weapon, they would be treated as criminals.
Riverbend at Baghdad Burning
