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02-02-2005, 10:13 PM
Iraqi policeman gives his life to protect young democracy
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
BAGHDAD — Policemen guarding a polling station in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood Sunday recognized the suicide bomber immediately. The young man was wearing Chinese-made high-top tennis shoes, a leather jacket and a red head scarf — the same kind of clothes as worn by an attacker at another site that same day.
Abdul Amir al-Shuwayli, 29, appears in a photo displayed at his funeral. He died Sunday when he thwarted a suicide bomb attack.
Fourteen-year police veteran Abdul Amir al-Shuwayli, 29, acted without hesitation.
The bomber was steps away from a line of voters heading into Al-Zahour Primary School when Shuwayli moved toward him, police Capt. Firaz Mohammed Ali said. According to Ali, Shuwayli yelled, "Let me save the people. Let me save my friends."
Shuwayli threw his arms around the bomber and drove him backward about 50 feet into an intersection. The rush seemed to catch the suicide attacker by surprise. The bomber had a hand grenade but failed to throw it. A second or two passed before he detonated an explosive belt, police Lt. Col. Kadham Abbas said.
The blast shredded Shuwayli, whose body took the brunt of the explosion. It also tore the bomber apart, leaving only his face intact. Shrapnel injured three other officers and perforated walls around the intersection. Windows in nearby homes shattered.
Voters continued to line up.
"Suicide bombers are not the only ones willing to give up their lives," said Ali, one of Shuwayli's commanders. "We have some people who are ready to die as well."
On Monday, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi eulogized Shuwayli in televised remarks and declared him a young democracy's first champion. "The martyr gave his life for his country," Allawi said. "Abdul Amir is a real hero of our nation."
At the policeman's funeral Tuesday, held under a bright red tent on a street outside the home he shared with his four brothers and three sisters in southern Baghdad, family members said it was the kind of sacrifice they had long dreaded.
"We were expecting him to be killed," Shuwayli's younger sister, Amir, said softly. She wore a black head scarf and dress, her face a mask of sorrow.
She said her brother was a news junkie who followed every detail of Iraq's struggle against the militants who have killed so many civilians and police. He hated the insurgency, she said.
"He was ready to give of himself to others," Amir said as she sat in her brother's bedroom. "We knew that about him."
The family has left the room as he kept it. Abdul Amir's jacket and shirt hang neatly from a peg on his bureau. His favorite incense burns, and his water pipe sits at the foot of his bed.
Shuwayli, a Shiite Arab, had decorated the walls with religious imagery and a family tree for the prophet Mohammed.
The third of eight adult children, Abdul Amir was a single man, following an Iraqi tradition of waiting for his sisters to marry before choosing a wife. As a police officer, he earned $235 a month.
As roast lamb and rice were served under the funeral tent, and family and tribal members gathered to mourn, Iraqi police convoys kept driving up to the house so fellow officers could pay their respects.
The family's neighborhood is rife with insurgents, and the convoys would not linger. Officers fired rifles into the air to disperse traffic so the police vehicles could leave quickly before becoming targets.
"He hated the insurgents," Amir said of her brother as the truckloads of police wheeled into the neighborhood. "His main interest was in fighting them."
Police Capt. Ali, interviewed at the Mansour police headquarters where Shuwayli was stationed, said he visited the blast site minutes after the explosion Sunday. He was surveying the scene of carnage when he saw something he found remarkable.
Residents began coming out of their homes and lining up in even greater numbers after the explosion.
"They were stepping on the bits and pieces of the insurgent with their feet as they walked in to vote," Ali said. Out of respect for the insurgents, they treated the bomber's body like garbage on the street
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
BAGHDAD — Policemen guarding a polling station in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood Sunday recognized the suicide bomber immediately. The young man was wearing Chinese-made high-top tennis shoes, a leather jacket and a red head scarf — the same kind of clothes as worn by an attacker at another site that same day.
Abdul Amir al-Shuwayli, 29, appears in a photo displayed at his funeral. He died Sunday when he thwarted a suicide bomb attack.
Fourteen-year police veteran Abdul Amir al-Shuwayli, 29, acted without hesitation.
The bomber was steps away from a line of voters heading into Al-Zahour Primary School when Shuwayli moved toward him, police Capt. Firaz Mohammed Ali said. According to Ali, Shuwayli yelled, "Let me save the people. Let me save my friends."
Shuwayli threw his arms around the bomber and drove him backward about 50 feet into an intersection. The rush seemed to catch the suicide attacker by surprise. The bomber had a hand grenade but failed to throw it. A second or two passed before he detonated an explosive belt, police Lt. Col. Kadham Abbas said.
The blast shredded Shuwayli, whose body took the brunt of the explosion. It also tore the bomber apart, leaving only his face intact. Shrapnel injured three other officers and perforated walls around the intersection. Windows in nearby homes shattered.
Voters continued to line up.
"Suicide bombers are not the only ones willing to give up their lives," said Ali, one of Shuwayli's commanders. "We have some people who are ready to die as well."
On Monday, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi eulogized Shuwayli in televised remarks and declared him a young democracy's first champion. "The martyr gave his life for his country," Allawi said. "Abdul Amir is a real hero of our nation."
At the policeman's funeral Tuesday, held under a bright red tent on a street outside the home he shared with his four brothers and three sisters in southern Baghdad, family members said it was the kind of sacrifice they had long dreaded.
"We were expecting him to be killed," Shuwayli's younger sister, Amir, said softly. She wore a black head scarf and dress, her face a mask of sorrow.
She said her brother was a news junkie who followed every detail of Iraq's struggle against the militants who have killed so many civilians and police. He hated the insurgency, she said.
"He was ready to give of himself to others," Amir said as she sat in her brother's bedroom. "We knew that about him."
The family has left the room as he kept it. Abdul Amir's jacket and shirt hang neatly from a peg on his bureau. His favorite incense burns, and his water pipe sits at the foot of his bed.
Shuwayli, a Shiite Arab, had decorated the walls with religious imagery and a family tree for the prophet Mohammed.
The third of eight adult children, Abdul Amir was a single man, following an Iraqi tradition of waiting for his sisters to marry before choosing a wife. As a police officer, he earned $235 a month.
As roast lamb and rice were served under the funeral tent, and family and tribal members gathered to mourn, Iraqi police convoys kept driving up to the house so fellow officers could pay their respects.
The family's neighborhood is rife with insurgents, and the convoys would not linger. Officers fired rifles into the air to disperse traffic so the police vehicles could leave quickly before becoming targets.
"He hated the insurgents," Amir said of her brother as the truckloads of police wheeled into the neighborhood. "His main interest was in fighting them."
Police Capt. Ali, interviewed at the Mansour police headquarters where Shuwayli was stationed, said he visited the blast site minutes after the explosion Sunday. He was surveying the scene of carnage when he saw something he found remarkable.
Residents began coming out of their homes and lining up in even greater numbers after the explosion.
"They were stepping on the bits and pieces of the insurgent with their feet as they walked in to vote," Ali said. Out of respect for the insurgents, they treated the bomber's body like garbage on the street