Sabri Khamis

From the news reports:

Long ago Mr Mahmood and the other shopkeepers gladly welcomed this genial policeman into the natural rhythm of their lives, a friend always present at their birthdays, weddings and funerals. ...

Sabri was unusually popular, and the death of this particular traffic policeman was seen by his friends as especially cruel and indefensible. An ordinary man, he joined the police when he was 17 and took home only a modest salary. His death deeply affected many of those he knew. ...

The inspector had eight daughters and two sons; the eldest child is 26 and the youngest, Ibrahim, five.

Every morning at 7am he would leave his home in Ameen, a shabby residential district half an hour away in southern Baghdad. Until 1pm he would drive a taxi, an old Volkswagen Passat, then each afternoon he would park it in the Babylon hotel car park, change into his uniform at the laundrette, and work at the crossroads until 8pm.

Most evenings he worked in his taxi again. ...

this was such a decent man. He never talked about politics. We just chatted about fish, about vegetables, about his family. He was a real friend." ...

"My brother grew up in a decent house and he took with him the morals of his parents," said Sheikh Mahmood. "He had so many friends that even the ground he walked on liked him. We should be proud of the way he died. He is a martyr who was serving his country."

GUA 27 Jan 2004