BAGHDAD - If Washington doubts there is Iraqi public support for guerrillas killing its troops, it should consider the teenagers who happily watched American blood spill on Wednesday.

After a roadside bomb ripped through a military vehicle and wounded two soldiers, Iraqi boys rushed out of their homes to survey the damage.

"This is good. If they ask me, I will join the resistance. The Americans have to die," said Ali Qais, 15. "They are just here to steal our oil."

Iraqi chlidren return from school in Fallujah, 50 kms south of Baghdad. The graffiti on the wall reads: 'No life...no dignity without Saddam. He shall come back...' (AFP/Karim Sahib)

The U.S. administration has long dismissed the guerrillas as isolated "terrorists" who are Saddam Hussein loyalists or foreign Islamic militants.

But the scene in the Sarafiya district of Baghdad suggests they are winning the sympathy of Iraqis, whose joy at Saddam's fall has been overshadowed by anti-American rage.

Teenage boys were irritated to hear that two American soldiers were just wounded, not killed.

"I saw them pushing their hands onto one of the Americans' chest. They must have died. One soldier's friend was crying," said Abdullah Oman, 18.

His fury has been fueled by what he says is an American desire to humiliate all Iraqis.

He even believes that U.S. troops plant the bombs themselves, risking American lives to terrify and kill Iraqis.

"They are watching us die and laughing. They humiliate us. They handcuffed me and arrested me in front of my parents late one night because I stood on my house porch after curfew," he said.

A new CIA report on Iraq warns of growing popular support for insurgents combating U.S. occupation forces and says efforts to rebuild the country could collapse without immediate corrective action, the Philadelphia Inquirer said on Wednesday.

The newspaper, quoting unnamed administration officials, also said in an article that the classified document's bleak view of the situation in Iraq has been privately endorsed by Iraq's U.S. governor, Paul Bremer.

Guerrillas have killed 155 American soldiers since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

In the months after the war, Iraqis voiced frustration with the American failure to crack down on looters and restore basic services.

Now talk has turned increasingly violent, especially among teenagers. They have watched American soldiers arrest their fathers and body-search their mothers during intrusive raids.

Iraqis are angrier and guerrillas are carrying out more spectacular attacks such as suicide bombings and mortar strikes on the main U.S. compound in Saddam's former palace.

Shortly after Wednesday's bombing teenagers in Sarafiya picked up leaflets from a group calling itself the Army of Mohammad.

"Patience, patience Baghdad. The occupation army will be destroyed," the leaflets said.

Residents of the working-class area watched as a U.S. soldier poured water and sand over the pools of blood from his comrades.

"I want to join these Iraqi fighters. I want to hit the Americans, the infidels," said Ali Ahmed, 10.

Copyright © 2003 Reuters Ltd

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