....Seconds later around 25 soldiers are in the house my brother, father and mother are outside sitting on the ground and in their a**hole-ish ways refused to answer any questions about what was happening. My father was asking them what they were looking so that he can help but as usual since you are an Iraqi addressing an American is no use since he doesn’t even acknowledge you as a human being standing in front of him.

They (the Americans) have a medic with them and he seems to be the only sane person amongst them, my brother tells me they were kids all of them. Anyway so my brother and father start talking to the medic and he tells them what this is about.

They have been “informed” that there are daily meetings the last five days, Sudanese people come into our house at 9am and stay till 3pm, we are a probable Ansar cell. My father is totally baffled, my brother gets it. These are not Sudanese men they are from Basra -the “informer” is stupid enough to forget that there is a sizeable population in Basra who are of African origin. And it is not meetings these 2 (yes only two) guys have here, they are carpenters and they were repairing my mom’s kitchen. Way. To. Go. You have great informers.

When it was all over, one of the soldiers stole his father's Johnnie Walker.

Salam Pax also writes a blog for The Guardian. Here's his latest entry. You can buy his book here:

Salam Pax:
The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi

by Salam Pax