Suspected militants to repair park
KUT, Iraq -- In an unusual approach to guerrilla warfare, US Army commanders are hiring suspected members of a Shi'ite Muslim militia to help rebuild a rusted, abandoned amusement park that once drew thousands of families with its Ferris wheel, bumper cars, fountains, and picnic areas.
The plan may sound far-fetched. But commanders in the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment say it is based on this simple premise: Enemy fighters do not have time to fire rockets or mortar shells if they are busy earning a living. Rebuilding the amusement park should occupy dozens of men for weeks.
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Throughout Iraq, the US military is funneling more than a billion dollars into projects to repair infrastructure and create jobs.
The Kut amusement park is the first public-works effort to target suspected followers of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The project carries special significance for the military. Sadr's forces in Kut rallied at the park before taking part in the bloody uprisings that swept south-central Iraq last month. Since then, the park has been occupied by squatters, who herd scores of goats amid pink oleanders and towering date palms. Looters have dismantled a high wall, carting away the bricks in dump trucks.
A US officer said renovating the park might plant peaceful thoughts in the minds of some militiamen.
''This time they'll be here with picks and shovels instead of AKs and RPGs," said Army Captain Leonard Kergosian, referring to assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Of all the cities involved in the uprisings, only Kut was quickly retaken by US forces. The city of a quarter-million inhabitants has remained relatively quiet since, and Sadr's local office has been reduced to a bombed-out shell.
While violence still rages in Karbala and Najaf, US commanders in Kut say they have struck on the right combination of deadly force and economic encouragement to maintain peace.
''We carry a gun in one hand and wave with the other," said Lieutenant Colonel Mark Calvert, a cavalry squadron commander in Kut.
But in recent days, there have been signs of trouble. Patrols rumbling through the city have encountered a proliferation of new Sadr posters nailed or stenciled onto walls, and two suspected militiamen died over the weekend while tinkering with a bomb in their car.
Hoping to stamp out a potential fire before it caught, Calvert thought the renovation project could help. He already had spent or planned to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on sewer, road, and school renovation projects, but the park could carry special appeal to residents. Many of its rides will have to be scrapped, but engineers hope to at least salvage its primary draw: the large, colorful Ferris wheel.
The only task that remained then was recruiting Sadr supporters for the job. That chance arrived last week during Friday prayers at a mosque whose members are loyal to the cleric. A patrol from the cavalry regiment stopped to talk with security guards and arranged a meeting with one of them Monday.
Over small glasses of tea, Calvert presented his offer to the Sadr contact: Fifty men would be paid $5 a day each to clean up and landscape the amusement park grounds. Two supervisors would get $15 each to oversee the work. The Army would pay $100 up front so that the supervisors could buy tools.
''I demand that people who work for me do a very good job," Calvert told the contact, Kassim Khlaf. ''I'll come by every day to check on the progress. If there's a problem, I will talk to you."
At that point, Khlaf chuckled lightly, shook his head, and said, ''Abu Ghraib -- noooo."
