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The attack had been planned with military precision. Twelve men, masked and carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles stormed into the al-Sanik branch of the Bank of Baghdad, disarmed the guards, tied them up and then terrified the staff by firing into the ceiling.
About US$800,000 ($1 million) was grabbed
before the gang drove away in three cars, untroubled by the many checkpoints in the area.
The raid was just the latest of a long and lucrative line that sees, on average, a million dollars a month being taken at gunpoint.
Bank executives have been kidnapped from their homes for ransoms as high as US$6 million.
Amid the gunfire, one "industry" is doing remarkably well, Baghdad is now the world's bank robbery capital.
Iraq holds the world record for both the first and second highest amounts taken in the history of bank robberies.
Top of the league is the estimated US$800 million removed from the Central Bank by Saddam Hussein's son, Qusay, in the dying days of the regime as United States tanks were rolling into Baghdad.
In second position is the heist, just two months ago, at the Dar al-Salam Bank at Sadoun St in central Baghdad when three guards turned on their employers and left with US$282 million.
Four years after "liberation" and the coming of the free market, Iraq is almost entirely a cash economy with a mushrooming group of private banks and vast sums of money being moved daily across the country.
The US authorities praised the rise of the private banking sector as one of the success stories of Iraq.
But the upsurge in robberies has meant that some branches have been unable to pay customers because of lack of cash.
One thing Iraq is not short of is men with guns.
The banks, and their money convoys, are easy pickings. The security forces have their hands full with the insurgency and Shiite militia groups and, in any case, are themselves suspected of carrying out many of the robberies.
Firas Ali Suleiman, a driver for the Bank of Baghdad, described how a van carrying US$1.6 million from its Hillah branch to Baghdad was ambushed.
"It was a Kia van and it was not armoured, but we had four guards with the money inside.
"We were stopped at a checkpoint in Audiya run by the Ministry of Interior commandos.
"They ordered the back door to be opened and saw the money. The guards were called out and then put in handcuffs and hooded. I could hear them talking about the money and then they took the money out. I was told to drive away and I called the manager on my mobile and told him what happened.
"The next roadblock was by the Mehdi army. I think they, too, were expecting to get some money but, by then, of course, it was gone. The police were called later but they did nothing."
Khalid Mohammed, the manager called by Suleiman, is convinced most of the robberies take place with inside help. "I have been at a bank branch when the men with guns came. They knew exactly where the money was and, when they left, they went straight past all the checkpoints, no one searched their cars or asked any questions.
"Before the war we just had a few banks, now there are lots of private ones, so less security, and more opportunity for stealing."
- Independent
