Iraqi Police Patrol the North

T U Z  K H A R M A T U, Iraq, Nov. 4 -- The road from Baghdad to Tuz Kharmatu is marked every few hundred yards by the twisted metal of fallen towers that once carried electricity lines — reminders of the lawlessness that followed the war.

Looters pulled the towers down one by one to steal the copper wire, which was, at the time, a fast mover on the black market. Some used trucks to pull the towers down; others used explosives.

Since then, power transmission has been restored. Traffic along the road is also markedly busier than just a few weeks ago.

Aging trucks carry used cars from Turkey and Syria, petrol from Kirkuk and electrical appliances from Jordan. Orange and white Volkswagen taxis ferry whole families. A man on a motorcycle hauls at least a dozen cardboard boxes.

As we film, a rusty, unmarked sedan pulls up, unloading five Iraqi policemen in mismatched uniforms. The ranking officer, Lt. Cmdr. Rashid Ali Rashid, tells us the road is safe during the day, but that at night, we should be careful.

Before the war, Rashid was a MiG-23 pilot in the Iraqi air force. Now, as American F-15 jets fly overhead — an unusual sight in Baghdad, but common in the north — he explains they're watching the oil and gas pipelines running north-south from Kirkuk to prevent sabotage; attackers have bombed the pipeline several times in recent weeks.

What the American pilots can do to prevent attacks from 15,000 feet, he's not sure. He says they fly mostly to intimidate potential attackers.

Rashid and the other policemen escort us to Tuz's police station. He says the Americans have given them radios but no police cars. The 250 police officers stationed here rely on one pickup truck, squeezing in as many as 10 officers at a time.

The Americans have also supplied some weapons, mostly AK-47s, and, most importantly, the police officers' monthly paychecks. Each officer gets $120 a month; senior officers, including Rashid, receive $180 a month. They say they're still waiting for their September paychecks.