More Battles

After the War...?
Accounts from a woman in Baghdad Posted Sept. 3,2004
Last night, with another appartment full of visitors, another 6 or 7 mortars or rockets took off and the sirens went off again. We decided that it was a clever tactic of the Mahdi Army. There are no 'on the ground' fighters in Kerrada, so the military cannot really attack the area. By day Kerrada continues as always - you would never guess that at night the area has been used a a launchpad for attacks on the Green Zone. And the BBC is busy report that 'lawless' Sadr City is where the attacks are being launched from. Popycock!!
The Mahdi Army could never hit the Green Zone from Sadr City and they would not even try - what utter rubbish! And we certainly would not hear the bangs or see plumes of smoke from here - Sadr City is around 10 kilometres away. Each night we have heard much more gun fire and more gun battles with return fire than usual - although it is very difficult to say exactly where it is coming from. Yesterday Ali (with the smile) visited us. We were so happy. We had not seen him for 3 or 4 weeks and we have been so worried about him. We did go looking for him, but to no avail. Tha day after we last saw him, he was due to come back and get some new clothes. He did not come. Instead, he had bumped into some old friends who were living in the House of Mercy Childrens' Home in Al Rashad in Bagdad and he went there with them and stayed there. He has his own room, cupboards and lots of clothes and is being fed well. This we can see for ourselves - he has honestly grown taller and, apart from a nice big black eye he had got from crashing into the goalpost while playing football, he looked wonderful. He now worked collecting scarp aluminium by day and the sheikh at the Chidrens' Home collects and saves the money he earns for him and any other child that works. There seems to be more freedom, trust and responsibility for their own actions given to the children here than in Al Wazerya and it seems to suit our Ali well. He could not stop smiling and he wanted nothing, just to see us - he had been to see us several times before, but we had been out. It was fantastic to see him. We asked him how things were in Al Rashad. Ali told us how the House of Mercy was situated next to a US Army Base in Al Rashad. The Mahdi Army was attacking this base nightly with RPGs, mortars and AK47's. Then the Americans would set off flares which stay in the sky lighting up the area for 5 minutes in order to be able to see the Mahdi Army fighters so that they could counter attack. When the flares die, the Mahdi Army attack again and so it goes on and on. Ali said that all the children in the House of Mercy were terrified and were unable to sleep at all. Howza (Islamic Pressure Group) run this childrens' Home and in order to register to live there, a child must first go to Sadr's (Moqtada's deceased father's) office in Sadr City . Ali had been to the office yesterday for something else and had seen 2 US tanks destroyed and burnt out from fighting with the Mahdi Army the night before. When we heard about the curfew in Sadr City , my translator became very concerned about his friends who live there. Some of them work as guards at the Paelstine/Sheraton complex and we wondered how they would be able to leave and return from work if the area was under curfew. Indeed, many of the guards that protect US/coalition interests in Bagdad , are Shia and live in Sadr City . Would these places end up with no guards? So last night Wejdy rang Ali to check if he and other friends were okay. Yes, thankfully, they were - the fighting has not yet reached their area of Sadr City - the area we visited last Monday. And they had not experienced any trouble leaving Sadr City to get to work. As the boys spoke, there was a bang from Kerrada as a rocket was fired off. A second later, Wejdy could hear commotion and shouting from Ali's end of the phone. The checkpoints at the Palestine/Sheraton had come under attack - the rocket we had heard leave had hit the first checkpoint on Abu Newas Street which protects the rear of the Bagdad Hotel - casualties so far unknown. We are very concerned about the safety and well-being of our friends during this trying time. Although they work as guards for the coaltion, they fully support Moqtada Al Sadr and the Mahdi Army.