[please be careful if quoting people in this article, as the translation isn't perfect]

Bagdad/Madrid,March 23 2003. CSCAweb (www.nodo50.org/csca)

After a day in which the intermittant explosion of bombs continued in Baghdad, the International Brigade members passed the night of Saturday March 22 sheltering from the repeated bomb impacts they could hear around them throughout the night. As they were able to observe this morning, these attacks were launched again against the Ministery of Air, which is now seriously damaged. At 11:30pm last night, as in the previous days, the anti air raid sirens preempted the start of a new US attack. Shortly afterwards, the sound of planes signaled new explosions, even though it was calmer than the previous night. The electricity supply was cut off, but it was reconnected after a short while.

ATTACKS ON CIVILIAN AREAS

The launching of US missiles and bombs last night has especially affected residencial areas in Bagdad, resulting in up to 800 wounded. The neighbourhood of Al Qaisiya has been particularly damaged, close to the Yarmuk University Hospital, which was recently visited by the International Brigade to greet the wounded. The management of the Hospital confirms that yesterday 100 people wounded by bombs and missiles from US B52 planes entered the hospital on Friday night. Tonight they registered the entrance of another 30 people, including children and adults and one fatality. Most of the wounded are from the Al Qadisiyya neighbourhood, which is just behind the hospital. The impact of the explosions caused a shock wave which broke hospital windows. During the night, medical staff had to move patients’ beds further into the interior of the building, to protect them from the windows and further injuries.

In their visit to the Al Qadisiyya neighbourhood, the brigade members witnessed the effects of a US missile which caused four houses to collapse and a fifth to catch fire. Some of the inhabitants belongings could be seen from the exterior: destroyed furniture, school books, a child’s shoes…The locals indicated that at least 15 other houses collapsed as a result of the missiles.

In Turas, a particularly poor and humble suburb on the edge of Bagdad, the brigade members were able to see the remainder of an American army missile with inscriptions in English. Electricity is still cut off throughout the neighbourhood. The missile had penetrated the living room of a house and caused the immediate death of a woman. The house opposite has also collapsed, as a result of the missile’s shock wave. The brigade members were able to greet the women of the affected family. The inhabitants of Turas, men, women, the elderly and children, had gone out into the streets from the early hours of the morning in a spontaneous collective demonstration of fury and indignation at the invasion of Iraq.

In another visit in the city, the brigade went to Addimiyya, a poor neighbourhood of mostly Sunni muslims in the north of Baghdad. Like every morning, the people had resumed the bustle of life, leaving their houses to go to the market and move around the streets.

ARMED CIVILIAN RESISTANCE

As the days go by, the presence of thousands of civilians armed with Kalasnikov guns on each corner multiplies. This could confirm the claim from the Iraqi Minister for External Affairs, Naji Sabri, that arms were given to more that seven million Iraqis to oppose a land invasion of US troops and to strengthen popular resistance. Civilian militia members, members of the Baa'th Party and soldiers dig trenches in the streets, open ditches which they flood with petrol. They light the petrol create intense columns of black smoke which since Friday, on the edges of Baghdad, and from yesterday in all of the city, fill the sky to make it hard for the aggressor army to launch bombs and missiles from planes. The use of these ditches spread today to other areas. Also today, shelters were raised over the trenches. For the first time, the Brigade saw Red Crescent men and women in the streets, working as health staff.

In their daily program, the International Brigade have prioritised hospital visits and travel to the areas most affected by the bombs, to show the affected people their support and solidarity and to witness the horrors which the US army is causing each night in this city.

DETERMINED TO STAY IN BAGHDAD

Early each morning, the International Brigade receive Iraqi visitors at their accommodation, checking that they are going OK and attending to their needs. The Cuban Ambassador, Ernesto Abascal, also visits them each morning, to reiterate in the name of his country the full availability of the Embassy to shelter and support them in the case of need or emergency. Ambassador Abascal informed the Brigade yesterday that the the embassy building was damaged by a shock wave to the point of breaking the door of the refuge where staff were sheltering.

All of the Brigade members are in good spirits, sharing a tragic but immensely human experience. They don’t tire to repeat that the contact with the people of Bagdad and the strength and gratitude they receive reinspires them each morning to stay firm in their determination to stay in Iraq.