BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Since guerrillas used donkeys to outwit the high-tech defences of the U.S. military in Iraq (news – web sites), the life of the beast of burden has never been so miserable.
Attackers used donkey carts to launch Katyusha rockets at the Oil Ministry and two fortified Baghdad hotels on Friday. Two other donkey carts were stopped — one carrying more rockets, the other a donkey-bomb wired up with explosives.
Every donkey in Baghdad is suddenly under suspicion as U.S. President George W. Bush (news – web sites) wages a global war on terror.
In a crackdown on an animal that already suffers multiple daily whippings, U.S. soldiers with automatic rifles regularly stop and search donkey carts for weapons.
Donkey owners say petrol stations have been refusing to sell them kerosene for resale since the rocket attacks. The animals salivate and wheeze with exhaustion as they pull their owners and heavy loads across the potholed streets of the Iraqi capital in a desperate search for kerosene.
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Leave it to Reuters to report a story from a donkey’s point of view. I am not quite sure how a donkey suffers from soldiers searching donkey carts. Does the fact that the soldiers carry rifles somehow go agains donkey sensibilities?
