In Iraq, a car can be an invitation to violence

In a dangerous country, it may be one of the quickest tickets to the afterlife.

Those driving white or gray Nissan Sunny sedans flirt with the very real possibility of being hit with a spray of gunfire, or their vehicle being rigged with a bomb. At least 28 such assaults have occurred since March, police say, five of them in the last 10 days.

What makes the Sunny such an appealing target? It’s a model the Iraqi government provides to its intelligence services, military and police forces.

At various times since 2003, cars have embodied the violence in Iraq. In the early days after Saddam Hussein’s fall, shiny black Opels were associated with Sunni Arab insurgents on the hunt for Iraqis sympathetic to the U.S. military. Chevrolet Trailblazer SUVs, nicknamed Monicas, and Toyota Mark II sedans, nicknamed the Duck, were the choice of Shiite Muslim militia groups during the days of sectarian war.

And in 2010, the Sunny has come to represent a season of paranoia, intrigue and assassinations. With political leaders locked in a stalemate since the March elections, people point their fingers at rival parties and mysterious forces. Security officials and public figures speak darkly of the professional killings.

“This is to disrupt the situation in the country and to push the country toward chaos,” said Falah Naquib, a senior figure in Iyad Allawi’s popular Iraqiya political coalition. Naquib charged that foreign intelligence agencies in collaboration with criminals were responsible.

Naquib’s cousin, a police major general, was shot in the head this spring after the national elections as he drove his Nissan Maxima in west Baghdad. He is now recovering in Amman, Jordan.

Since March, 354 people have been killed by so-called sticky bombs, explosives planted on cars and detonated by remote control or timer, according to police sources. Fifty-seven of the dead were in Sunnys when they were targeted. In the last 10 days, five Sunny cars were blown up. The dead included an army brigadier general and an intelligence officer.

The cars distributed by the government were largely imported between 2000 and 2004, and were kept in warehouses until they were distributed at the end of 2005.

The killings have turned the Sunny, once a desirable family sedan, into a loathsome object. Car salesmen complain that those with a black license plate, often the trademark of a government-owned car, are difficult to sell.

“The people are reluctant to drive [the Sunnys], or any vehicle, with the black plate,” salesman Wathiq Fadel said.

Many people are even looking to dump their Sunnys.

A popular radio announcer who calls himself Abu Mais said he decided to sell his 2004 Sunny two months ago. He quit driving it after his wife begged him to stop.

“I may lose money,” he said, “but I don’t care. It’s better to lose some money than to lose my life and family.”

Taxi drivers have found the Sunny bad for business. One driver says he now gets stopped at checkpoints, and officers demand to know whether his car belongs to the government.

“Passengers ask me if I feel safe driving such a car,” said the driver, who is frustrated by the extra effort it takes to soothe clients.

A bureaucrat in the intelligence services had to answer to his mother. After two colleagues were killed by a sticky bomb and gunmen, he agreed to leave the car at home. She said she would die of worry if he didn’t.

ned.parker@latimes.com

Redha is a Times staff writer.