Iraq Shaken By Wave of Gold, Jewelry Robberies
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Inside Amjad Abed’s tiny gold shop, the display cases sit half empty, and the memories of his two grown sons are in the bullet holes that gouge the walls.
Last spring, three gunmen burst in and ransacked the store, scooping up rings that brides choose for weddings and necklaces that husbands buy on credit for anniversaries.
They killed Mr. Abed’s sons, who had been tending the shop.
“I lost my sons, I lost all my money,” Mr. Abed, 55, said. “I cannot give a word for what’s happened.”
Inside Amjad Abed’s tiny gold shop, the display cases sit half empty, and the memories of his two grown sons are in the bullet holes that gouge the walls.
Last spring, three gunmen burst in and ransacked the store, scooping up rings that brides choose for weddings and necklaces that husbands buy on credit for anniversaries.
They killed Mr. Abed’s sons, who had been tending the shop.
“I lost my sons, I lost all my money,” Mr. Abed, 55, said. “I cannot give a word for what’s happened.”
What happened, according to officials, was a snapshot of an emerging form of violence in Iraq.
Last fall, men armed with hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades stormed the largest gold market in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing 10 people and wounding 15 others.
The robberies show the tenacity of a militant and criminal underworld still capable of exploiting breaches in security.
Although killings across Iraq have fallen sharply, in part because of rigid security measures and a lull in violence between Sunni and Shiite groups,
officials have noted a multitude of assassinations, minor bombings and robberies as the insurgency takes on an increasingly criminal tinge.
“You’re seeing more of the small-scale attacks in Baghdad than we’ve historically seen from Al Qaeda in the past,”
said Brig. Gen. Ralph O. Baker, the deputy American commander in Baghdad.
“This is an attempt by Al Qaeda to reassert their footprint back in the city.”
Security officials say the diminishing scale of the violent crimes is a sign that security has improved and that
insurgents are less able to stage the huge bombings of the height of the sectarian conflict.
But the unpredictable assaults demonstrate Iraq’s vulnerability as the United States prepares to withdraw its remaining troops and politicians feud over forming a new government.
Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, a spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, said the robberies helped finance networks like Al Qaeda.
But no group has claimed responsibility for the gold shop attacks, and the police have announced no arrests.
Recent reports from across Iraq suggest that attackers are increasingly using silencers to kill police and security officers,
blowing up individual cars with magnetic bombs, and attacking vulnerable and cash-rich merchants — especially gold dealers.
The rise in the price of gold over the past period has made the gold shops an especially attractive target for bandits.
The string of fatal robberies has unnerved the gold dealers.
Some temporarily closed their shops, and others say they change operating hours every few days, in case someone is watching.
Business has slowed, and some have considered closing permanently.
Others are increasingly fatalistic.
“What will we do if we sell out?” asked Fahd al-Taie, 22, whose grandfather began selling gold in Karbala, and whose father moved the business here to the capital.
“We don’t know anything else. Now, we await our death.”
Another dealer, who gave his name only as Abu Ahmed, 48, has pulled the jewelry out of the front window
and hides a pistol just below the glass display cases, as many dealers do.
“I put a bullet inside it, so it is ready,” he said.
“But even I can’t protect myself. Even if we put a cannon here, we could not protect our shop.”
Security officers and witnesses to some of the robberies say they occur with ruthless efficiency.
The thieves shoot out windows, quickly kill store occupants and loot the gold jewelry while one person stands watch at the door.
Many gold dealers said the bandits’ ability to escape quickly in a city of endless traffic jams and hundreds of checkpoints made them suspect that some police officers are involved.
“It is useless,” said Mohammed Abdul-Hussein al-Salih, who works at a jewelry shop in the bustling Karada neighborhood.
“We can’t depend on the police or the army. Only God is protecting us.”
In the Baya neighborhood, a gold dealer who called himself Abu Ihab tended a store
where he said his brother, nephew and two cousins were killed in May, part of the same attack that killed Mr. Abed’s sons next door.
He said he had nothing left to sell and little money to restart his business.
He spends much of the day tending to old accounts.
“They showed no mercy, they came to kill,” Mr. Ihab said.
“We’re seeing a new kind of criminal in Iraq,” according to this disturbing item from the New York Times.
