.              

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops like nothing more than hoisting the Stars and Stripes when they occupy an enemy position but, in Iraq, they are learning it is a quick way to lose new friends.

A string of incidents, some of them fatal, have shown that even a friendly crowd can turn against the Americans at the first sign of them either raising their own flag or lowering Iraq's.

Destroying portraits of Saddam Hussein is one thing but showing any disrespect for the national flag is quite another.

In the northern city of Mosul last week, U.S. Marines shot dead at least seven people at a street protest that was apparently sparked by Marines unfurling an American flag as they occupied the regional governor's offices.

Military officials say the Marines simply responded to fire from paramilitaries hiding among the crowd, but field officers say the Marines over-reacted to signs of trouble and had incensed the crowd by raising the Stars and Stripes.

"That was our first mistake right there ... It really fired people up and things turned nasty real fast," said one Marine, who asked not to be identified.

"You must respect the flag," said Mohammed Saleh, a middle-aged resident of Mosul who said he saw the incident. "They say to us they want to leave our country soon. How can we believe them if they put up the American flag?"

In a separate clash last week, 16 U.S. soldiers were wounded when someone threw a hand grenade at them in Mahmudiya just south of Baghdad and at least two Iraqis were shot dead in the ensuing gunfight.

One soldier who was there said the attack came minutes after troops pulled down an Iraqi flag at the police station. "I think that was the spark for that whole melee," the soldier said.

AMERICAN ICON

An iconic photograph from World War II was of Marines hoisting the flag at Iwo Jima in 1945 and U.S. troops at war routinely raise the Stars and Stripes at the first opportunity.

Military commanders leading the war in Iraq tell troops not to hoist or display the American flag although some find the temptation difficult to resist and the Stars and Stripes still adorn some Humvees.

On the second day of the war, Marines raised the flag at the port of Umm Qasr and later, when they toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad, another American flag was draped over the statue's head.

Many, however, are getting the message that you can't win Iraqi hearts and minds by upsetting nationalist sentiment.

Capt. Chris McKinney, a company commander of the 101st Airborne Division, said a large group of civilians tipped off his unit to a large weapons cache in Baghdad and took them there. Everything went well until the soldiers began taking down the Iraqi flag and the crowd immediately turned hostile.

"We got it halfway down, saw their reaction, and we put it up again. They cheered, and then they carried on helping us," he said.

"We've learned that. You don't touch their flag ... We are not here to conquer. We are not at war with the Iraqi people and they care about their flag," he said at a rehabilitation center for Iraqis wounded in previous wars where his company briefly set up camp after moving into Mosul earlier this week.

On the center's roof, three soldiers armed with machine guns watched over the compound. Next to them, the Iraqi flag fluttered in the breeze. There was no sign of the Stars and Stripes.

Join our Daily News Headlines Email Digest

HOME

COPYRIGHT NOTICE