No scenes of panic in Baghdad
Shahanaaz Habib reporting from BaghdadBAGHDAD: The streets were fairly quiet following power and water cuts in Baghdad on Thursday night.
There were, however, tanks on the streets and lots of army personnel on Friday. Many shops were closed but it was business as usual for vendors in Al Rasheed Street.
Tea stalls were open and people were out buying necessities such as torchlights, cables, batteries and generators.
People were going about their activities in a matter-of-fact manner – with no sense of urgency or hurry.
While there were noticeably fewer women on the street, a father was out with his little daughter walking along leisurely.
A donkey cart laden with goods ambled along, and two boys carrying a cockerel each under their right arms were spotted heading for one of the usual cockfights.
As the telecommunications lines have been down for almost a week and with the power cut, many Iraqis are not aware of the advance of the US-led troops on the city.
Safa Mahdi, who was out on Friday morning, said the Iraqis had no problems with the electricity and water cuts because they were prepared and had expected this.
But he was totally oblivious to the fact that US troops were so close.
“Tell them to go away. We will not let them come. They are after our oil,” he said, cheered on by his friends.
“Allah will protect us,” he added.
Mustafa Mohamad said Baghdad would be a graveyard for the Americans.
“We will bury them here,” he said.
An Iraqi Christian, Leith Samer, said all Christians in Iraq were against a “US invasion.”
“They are not liberators but invaders. They are coming from outside to attack us,” he said, adding that he would fight them and was prepared to die for his country.
The sound of bombings on Friday night was very intense.
A guide by the name of Wizam came to work looking rather exhausted. He had been kept awake by his three-month-old daughter, who had cried incessantly because she was so frightened by the noise.
Another said he wanted to send his wife and children out of Baghdad to safety but they had nowhere to go.
“So they will have to stay,” he said.
Where news has filtered down, some Iraqis have taken the precaution of sending their mothers, sisters, wives and children to underground shelters to sleep or have left the city.
But for others, their children are still on the streets playing football.
Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/4/6/nation/pkcut&sec=nation