At 7.56 am this morning we were awoken by a huge explosion followed by heavy
and very close/ loud gunfire. I jumped out of bed and looked out of the
window to see smoke rising into the air about two steets away - less than
100 metres as the crow flies. I donned my chadoor to be on the safe side and
we were on our way within a couple of minutes.

On our way we passed parents taking their children to school as if nothing
had happened - this shows the 'get on with it mentality' of Iraqis - they
are so used to bombs and violence, they just carry on with their lives -
they have to.

The explosion was a roadside bomb. It had gone off right outside St Raphael
Hospital and Church. Thank God that it was somewhat smaller than the
roadside bomb that went off here on 27 December. No one was killed and only
one was injured, a lawyer with head injuries, but thankfully he was walking
around and talking to people. And thank God that the hospital was not
damaged.

The only damage appeared to be a pharmacy shop and one car. We believe that
the bomb and subsequent gun fire was aimed at the injured lawyer - his car
had bullet holes all over it.

This shows the different kinds of people resisting right now in this
country. You have the brave men in Fallujah fighting for their home and
their very survival against all out American aggression, you have other bave
men who will drive up to the Sheraton Hotel risking their lives to cause
damage to the buildings that house the companies milking the occupation -
not trying to kill or injure people, just trying to make their point and
hassle the Americans; and then you have these cowards who plant roadside
bombs in the middle of residential areas and outside hospitals.

Anyway, in our hurry we had forgotten the digicamera, so we went back to get
it. I did not return to the scene - it is far too dangerous to hang about
these places where there are lots of Westerners (journalists). Wejdy, my
translator, went back on his own to take some photos. Unfortunately he ended
up being arrested by the Iraqi Police - after all he is Iraqi and Iraqis do
not have the same rights as the Western photographers at the scene. They
asked him why he was taking photos, so he asked them what about all these
(the other Western photographers). Maybe they thought he was the bomber!!!!
And he had forgotten his ID in the rush - but it was okay -
they let him go and we later heard off one of the little girls outside our
appartment that he had been on Al Jazeera TV.

As he left the scene, the Americans showed up in their humvees - late as
usual - probably about to cause the usual chaos and mayhem that they
ususally do at such bomb sites, after the Iraqi Police have (usually) coped
so well.

At 9.30 am, the builders resumed their work on the building site next to the
hospital - just one and a half hours after the explosion. Can you imagine
that happening in Britain, but like I said, the Iraqis just get on with
life.

We are planning to go visit people today in the area around the
Palestine/Sheraton Hotel complex and we had discussed a route to walk there
safely. We had decided to walk up Kerrada and cut through one of the streets
to Abu Newas Street, alongside the river. We thought we would take the St
Raphael Hospital road - it is always busy, lots of people and well, safe! We
will probably go a different way now!

We have heard loud bombs every morning lately at around 8 am. Yesterday
there were three loud explosions and the two days previous there were 2 each
day, but this one was so close.

As you are all probably aware, Iraq is not as safe as it used to be for
Westerners - not even aid workers like myself. Even though I am here to
help, not steal off Iraq/make money out of the ocupation, and even though I
am anti-war and anti-occupation, I still take lots of precautions. I wear a
headscarf to cover my very obvious hair, walk facing oncoming traffic with
an Iraqi male between me and the traffic and I don't take taxis anywhere
right now. It is not very nice as I cannot go visit the boys or do the work
that I want to do here. Although I am safe here in Kerrada, my local
neighbourhood, all the people here know the score and are really helpful -
some of them even joke that they will kidnap me!!! So I stick around here
where there are lots of shops, internet cafes, bakeries and lots of life - I
love it here and I love the people here.

We often go to visist Katarina. She is a Christian lady who lives down the
steet. She is only 5 years older than me, but looks almost 60 - she has had
such a hard life. She had a bad marriage and is now divorced and only has
one of her children living with her, 15 year old Zaid. She is poor and lives
in an old shop with a glass front with a little room at the back where she
washes and cooks. She cleans the shops around for 10,000 dinar a month (4
pounds), sells a few packs of cigarettes on the streets and gets a little
benefit off the church each week. She is such a nice lady, she is always
pleased to see us, always makes us some chai. A couple of days ago she was
too frightened to go out shopping with the current situation here, so we
went instead and bought her some tomatoes, cougettes and onions and some
cough medicine. She was so happy, she gave me some make up and nail vanish -
you know, it was probably worth more than the value of the vegetables.

As I said I don't go in taxis at the moment - my friend goes for me. The
other day he went somewhere for me. In the first taxi he took, there was
music playing. It was a song called "The Anger" about Fallujah - he said it
was a beautiful song about the resistance struggle going on in Fallujah and
the other cities in Iraq, such as Nagaf and being sold in aid of the people
of Fallujah. We intend to buy a copy. Wejdy told the taxi driver about our
recent trip into Fallujah - he was so pleased calling Wejdy ' brave' and
even tried to refuse the taxi fare. The driver was pleased that Iraq was
finally resisting the occupation, but not happy with the kidnappings - he
said that real Iraqis wouldn't do that.

On the way back, the taxi driver was from Sadr City. He said that, at the
moment, there were no American soldiers there "but let them come if they
want to die - they will find RPGs pointing at them". He was also pleased
with our trip to Fallujah calling Wejdy 'an angel'.

This is a favorite lie of Bush and Blair right now. They are trying to make
out that the current 'violence' in Iraq is just fundamentalist, terrorists
and outsiders and they say the vast majority of Iraqis are happy. NOT TRUE -
there is not one Iraqi that I have spoken to who wants the Americans to stay
- they want them out and they want them out now. All the people are behind
the resistance fighters - I cannot emphasise this point enough - the
Americans have lost forever any trust or respect they may have had - people
here are wising up and fast.

SOME NEWS YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD:

You have probably heard about the Iranian diplomat shot dead outside the
Embassy and about the American soldier being held by the resistance, but
here's some things you probably don't know:

A GMC vehicle was driving to Baghdad along the highway from Jordan - it was
attacked by an American helicopter gunship killing the passenger and
seriously injuing the driver.

In Mosul a family were massacred when a US rocket hit their house - for no
reason. The Americans also killed people outside the house in the street and
in shops.

In Abu Gharib,just outside Baghdad, no one has been able to leave/enter the
town for over one week because the Americans ae blocking the roads. If the
children see a helicopter or tank attacking someone, the parents say 'why,
this is democracy and freedom' - the children are now scared of 'democracy
and feedom'.

All this news is off Al Iraqia news channel - funded by the Pentagon.
Everyone interviewed on there speaks against the Americans and the
occupation - even on their own channel!!

As I type this there are 2500 US troops surrounding the most holy city of
Nagaf. If they go in, attack the mosque, or try to arrest Moqtada Al Sadr,
the results, I feel, will be catostrophic. The Americans will just unleash
further bloodshed and violence in this very troubled nation - and things
will become even more dangerous everywhere.

All for now
Helen Williams