IRAQ: Shots in the Street

Only a few weeks before, Iraq's Premier Abdel Karim Kassem had been the nation's idol, but now the mention of his name drew sneers as well as applause from Baghdad crowds. As his tan Chevrolet station wagon rolled past the coffee shops on teeming Rashid Street, some coffee drinkers propped their legs on the café tables to show Kassem the soles of their feet—an Arab gesture of contempt. Demonstrators protesting last month's execution of 13 popular Iraqi army officers (TIME, Sept. 28) even dared to chant: "Allah is great, Kassem is crazy." In the sultry heat of Baghdad, many an...