In post-war Baghdad, a Mercedes is easy to get, easy to lose

They are flooding into the capital from Jordan and the Arabian Gulf states: nearly new Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Opel sedans, available for a song in the commercial chaos of postwar Iraq, cruising in air-conditioned splendour past the rusting jalopies that for years were all most Iraqis could afford.

And they are being stolen, at gunpoint, at a rate of 70 a day.
* Janan, a teacher who asked that her last name not be published, was taking a maiden drive with two young daughters in her husband's newly imported Mercedes several weeks ago when another car cut her off at an intersection.

"There were five men inside. One jumped out and pointed a pistol at my mother's head," said 12-year-old Shams. "We thought they were going to kidnap us all, but they took the car and left us standing in the road. We kept screaming, but no one stopped."

* Khalid Rashid, an elderly diplomat, had just taken his Mercedes out of the garage when a group of armed men pulled up in a car. One called out his name, and another beat his head with a pistol. He said he never saw the car again.

* Last month, merchant Ghassan Gharib heard gunshots and ran out of his house to see his next-door neighbour speeding away in the Peugeot the neighbour had just bought, its front window shattered by bullets. Four gunmen were chasing him in another car, but they then fled.

"They were after his car, but he escaped. When I saw his face afterward, all the colour was gone from it," said Gharib, who recently bought a late-model BMW. "Now I don't drive at night, and I never take my family out in the car. It's just not safe."

Carjacking has become Baghdad's number one crime problem in the past two months. Police say hundreds of late-model or luxury vehicles are being stolen each week by gunmen who surprise drivers at busy traffic stops, on lonely stretches of road, or outside homes and garages.

The carjackings are less spectacular and less deadly than the recurring terrorist attacks on U.S. troops and other foreign targets in the metropolitan area, but are far more frequent and unnerving to residents of a capital whose sprawling size and modern freeway system make it an ideal city for cars.

Police attribute the epidemic to a combination of causes: the high urban unemployment rate that has soared since Baghdad fell in April, the wide availability of guns, the many used luxury cars that have poured into Iraq, and the relative ease of committing quick, opportunistic crimes in a huge city with a newly trained and overstretched police force.

"It's a disease that is spreading fast, and we don't have the means to stop it," said Major Ehsam Salman, a veteran police officer. "There are too many idle men with nothing to do, and too many cars coming with no controls. It's happening every day, all over the city, and we don't even have a working emergency number people can call."

Random checks

Since mid-June, city police backed by U.S. troops have been conducting random roadside vehicle checks, in which they pull over new or expensive-looking cars, ask to see the driver's documents, and search the trunk and interior for weapons.

One recent morning, Lieutenant Ali Hussain, a thin, serious-looking man of 23, waved down dozens of luxury sedans on a busy commuter bridge, many with no licence plates and new import stickers on their windshields. Usually the owners were middle-class Iraqis who said they had recently purchased the vehicles here for $3,000 to $7,000.

"This is the first time in a month I've gone out in my car," said Salman Daoud, 55, a businessman in a large grey BMW who was pulled over; his teenage son was in the passenger seat. "We're very afraid of the hijackers," Daoud said. "It's OK if they take my car, but what if they kill me and my son?"

Most drivers complied readily with Hussain's polite request for ID papers and permission to search. But Hassan Hajji, 36, an engineer and political party activist in a just-purchased 1992 BMW, blustered indignantly. "Do I look like a thief?" he challenged Hussain.

"Sir, we are doing this for your safety, to save your life," the young lieutenant replied gravely.

After Hajji calmed down, he said his previous car had been stolen at gunpoint six weeks earlier, while he was driving with his wife. Unfazed, he promptly purchased the sleek fir-green BMW for $6,700. "It's too hot here. I just can't drive without air conditioning," he said.

Hussain said later that even with an armed squad of U.S. troops standing by, conducting car checks has been nerve-racking duty. If a car is stolen, the men inside may start shooting, he said. Recently he was in a squad car following a suspected stolen car when the occupants shot out his tyres.

It's also difficult for police to trace cars that are stolen or used in carjackings because many vehicles have no licence tags. Before the war, thorough customs checks were conducted and duty fees were collected at Iraqi border-crossing points, police and car dealers said. Now vehicles cross with almost no scrutiny, including stolen cars being imported for cheap re-sale.

Organised operations

Officials said carjackings are becoming organised operations, with gangs following potential victims and learning their driving routes, and even offering to find and return stolen cars to their owners for a hefty fee.

"No one can go out with a fancy car anymore," said Qais Akram Hassan, who co-owns one of Baghdad's largest car dealerships. He employs 12 armed guards and keeps his office locked at all times.

Salman, the police officer, said the best way to curb car theft would be to place permanent checkpoints at all roads leading into and out of the city. But with the police force in the process of being revamped and retrained by U.S. authorities, only 5,000 officers are in place to cover a city of 5.5 million people.

"Saddam let all the criminals out of jail just before the war, and now we've had three months with no government, so the criminals can do anything," Salman said in frustration. "The best thing to do is just surrender your car, because your life is more important."