Baghdad neighborhood rises up and fights back

Great story, also refreshing to see the EM actually report it.

Abu Salah heard the screeching tires and gunfire outside his home in central Baghdad, and cowered. He'd feared this moment. He'd even plotted leaving the city, though he'd never followed through on his plan.

Now invaders had entered his street, and he knew that as the only Sunni on a street filled with Shiites, he was probably their target, whomever the invaders might be - insurgents, kidnappers or sectarian death squads.

"I was shaking; it was the fourth time in three days they'd invaded," he said. "I knew they were coming for me."

Then he heard another sound: the gunfire being returned.

He rushed from his house to see his neighbors - Shiite neighbors - on their roofs, in their windows, in their yards, firing at the attackers. In a trembling voice, he explained that at that moment he felt life change. He realized that his neighbors weren't going to stand by and let the bad guys win.

"I prefer now to die among my friends and neighbors rather than leave my home," he said. "I felt thrilled to see them fighting, all my neighbors standing next to each other guarding the area."