Report from the Brigade: the fourth night of the attacks Baghdad/Madrid, 23 march, 2003
Translation from Spanish by Donald Murphy
After a day of intermittent bomb explosions in Baghdad, the Brigade members spent the night in their shelter, from which they could hear repeated impacts in the surrounding areas throughout the night. As they were able to confirm this morning, these attacks again targeted the Air Ministry, which suffered heavy damages. At 11.30 PM, as on previous nights, anti-aircraft defence sirens announced the beginning of new US attacks. The sounds of aircraft soon gave way to renewed explosions, although the night was much quieter than the night before. The water supply was cut off momentarily, but shortly re-established.
Civilian areas attacked
The US missiles and bombs launched last night particularly affected residential areas of Baghdad, causing up to 800 injuries. Especially damaged was the Al Qadisiya district, very near the University Hospital at Yarmuk, which the Brigade visited again today with the purpose of talking with the injured. Hospital management confirmed that 100 people injured in Friday night's bombing by US B52's were hospitalised yesterday. Another 30 hospitalisations, of both adults and children, were recorded last night, along with one death. The majority of the injuries were from the Al Qadisiya area, located just behind the hospital. The impact of one explosion caused a shock wave that shattered the windows of the hospital itself, forcing hospital staff to move patients to interior areas of the building for their protection.
During their visit to Al Qadisiya, Brigade members witnessed the effects of a US missile that caused the collapse of four houses and the gutting of a fifth, the exposed interior of which revealed the inhabitants' day-to-day possessions: destroyed furniture, school books, children's shoes. Neighbourhood residents said that at least 15 more houses had been destroyed by missiles.
In Turas, a humble and heavily populated neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city, Brigade members saw the remains of a US army missile, with inscriptions in English. Electricity has remained cut off throughout the entire neighbourhood. The missile had entered the living room of dwelling and caused the immediate death of one woman. The shock wave from the same missile caused the house opposite to collapse. Brigade members spoke to the women of the family who had lived there. The residents of Turas, men, women, old people and children, have taken to the streets since early morning in a spontaneous, collective demonstration of indignation and rage in which they have not ceased to chant slogans of protest against the invasion of their country.
On another visit, the Brigade walked through Addimiyya, a mostly Sunni residential area in the north of Baghdad. People there have resumed, as they do every morning, the bustle of their daily lives, leaving their houses to shop at the market and stroll through the streets.
Armed civilian resistance
As the days progress, the presence of thousands of civilians armed with Kalishnikovs has multiplied in the streets of Baghdad. Civilian militia, members of the Baa'th Party and soldiers are digging trenches in the streets, creating ditches which they then fill with oil and set fire to, sending huge columns of smoke into the sky. Since Friday in the outskirts of Baghdad, and yesterday in the rest of the city, the smoke has obscured visibility and made it more difficult for the attacking air force to launch their missiles and bombs. The use of these ditches is extending today to more areas. They are also being covered. For the first time, in a sanitation team comprising both men and women, the Brigade has observed the presence of the Red Crescent at work.
In its programme for the day, the Brigade has given priority to visiting hospitals and areas affected by the bombing, to show its support and solidarity for the victims of these attacks, and to bear witness to the horrors that each night US forces continue to inflict on the city.
Determined to remain in Baghdad
The first thing each morning, the Brigade receives a visit from its Iraqi contacts who come to see if they are all right and attend to their necessities. They are also visited each morning by Cuban Ambassador Ernesto Abascal, who reiterates in the name of his country the willingness of his Embassy to provide shelter and assistance in case of necessity or emergency. Ambassador Abascal told the Brigade yesterday that due to the effects of a missile impact nearby, the Embassy building was damaged by a shock wave that nearly broke in the door of the shelter where Cuban Embassy staff had taken refuge.
All of the Brigade members are in good spirits, sharing a tragic but immensely human experience in which, they do not tire of repeating, their contact with the people of Baghdad and the show of strength and gratitude they receive reaffirm each morning their determination to remain in Iraq.
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