Report from the Brigade: the first night of the attacks (CSCAweb: 07-04-03)
Baghdad/Madrid, 20 March, 2003.
Translation from Spanish by Donald Murphy (www.nodo50.org/csca)At 9:00 AM this morning (11:00 AM in Iraq), the members of the Spanish Brigade who remain in Iraq send this message to the CSCA to report on the current situation in Baghdad after the first air attacks on the city by US aircraft and missiles. All of the Brigade members report that they are well and calm.
As we are told, at 5:40 AM local time (two hours later than Spanish peninsular time), the first Iraqi air raid alarms were heard. Immediately, all of the Brigade members went down into their basement-shelter together with the other persons who share this shelter with them. They remained there until the attack has passed and then ascended to a balcony where they were able to see bursts of flame and columns of smoke. Up to 20 missiles and bombs from US aircraft had fallen on buildings in the southwest of the city.
At 9:00 AM a new alarm was sounded and an explosion somewhere in the vicinity was heard. After this, silence returned and with it a degree of calm. Later, the Brigade went out into the streets, where all of the businesses remained, as they were yesterday, closed, and where a greater military presence could be observed – in the groups of militia, soldiers and Iraqi police on patrol there –, as well as a scarcity of civilians. On the way back to its lodgings, and after verifying first-hand that all was calm in the city, the Brigade decided to proceed instead to the Press Centre where they had arranged a meeting with media representatives.
Apart from this, we report that the Basque Country Brigade departed at 19:00 local time for Amman, Jordan, from which they will then return home. Three members of that Brigade, Imanol Telleria, Javier Barandiaran y Manu Fernández, have decided to remain here in Baghdad with the seven members who had already decided to stay on in the city.
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