Hi
Bagdad 1 August 2004
I am typing this with great difficulty as I have just
left the scene of a horrible car bomb here in Kerrada
some 50 metres from my appartment.
About 1 an 1/2 hours ago I was emailing some photos home
of a cluster bomb victim in Bagdad Internet cafe on the
main street in Kerrada. We heard a bomb go off nearby
and the building shook a bit and people got up and
looked out of the window. The street outside was
continuing as normal although people were looking around
a bit. I carried on my work for 5 minutes or so. Then
suddenly 'Booooom' a huge devasting explosion happened.
The building shook and there was dust everywhere and the
sound of glass breaking. This time we were up and away
(we even forgot to pay) as we hurried off. We ran in the
heat up the main street taking a left into the
residential and hotel area of Kerrada. At first I
thought that the Casabalanca or Andulous Palace Hotel
had been hit. But no - it was the main Catholic Church
in amongst the houses here. This church is big and
beautiful with a huge high Christian cross at the front
of it forming a high arch. As we approached we saw many
injured people running from the scene of the blast in
shock, faces and clothes smattered in blood. These were
the people that could run away, able to move away from
the scene. People had started to gather as had the Iraqi
Police and the well-paid journalists with their minders
and bullet proof jackets. In the area in front of the
church there were many cars that had been driving past
when the explosion had occurred. They were stuck here
now, as if frozen in time, unable to move and covered in
dust, all of their windscreens smashed. The occupants of
the vehicles had not moved from them - they were just
sat there in shock. The Iraqi Police did a good job
getting the cars moved away so that emergency vehicles
could get to the scene. I watched as one poor middle
aged lady tried to move her torn and battered car, tears
rolling down here face and blood on her face and neck
from glass cuts from the smashed windscreen.
Right outside the church was a huge fire and here were
the two cars that had been used as bombs - smashed to
bits, blackened shells and unrecognisable as cars.
People here were being taken from their now windowless
cars, unable to move themsleves due to their injuries.
They were covered in blood. Other men and women were
running back and fro across this residential street in
panic and disarray. They were shouting and crying and
many were covered in blood.
A large house next to the church appeared to have taken
the full force of the blast, the top floor badly
damaged. Thankfully, I saw the residents of the house
leaving by the outside stairs - I hope it was everyone
inside. As we stood there, more explosions went off as
cars caught fire and their petrol tanks blew up. The
black smoke and fire from the explosion reached up high
into the evening sky. Then suddenly there was another
bang as the electric power lines and pole they were
attached to caught fire.
The Iraqi Police managed to move everyone back calmly
and politely and we watched as more and more injured
people left the scene on foot or drove their cars away.
Every building around had lost its glass and people all
around us were visibly shaken and upset.
Then the ambulances started to arrive - some of these
are damaged and we in rich Britain would discard them as
unfit to be ambulances. But this is poor old Iraq - one
of them had its cracked windscreen held in with sticky
tape!
Then Mohammed Saduun and Hayder (2 of the street boys
arrived) on the scene. So it seemed everyone was here
before the Americans. Then they came, gun ho, rude and
unpleasant as always. I heard one of them telling the
bystanders to "get the f**k out of here" as we were
moving back up the road. I told him off - he said there
was not time to talk. I told him I would be listening
out and there was no need for his coarse language and he
calmed down a bit.
The next thing they did was throw razor wire across the
road and then stop the fire engines and ambulances in
the middle of all the by-standers and check it for
bombs!! They are incredible.
During the course of these events I watched the
Sheraton/Palestine journalists enter the bomb zone with
their press passes and climb up on the fire engines to
get better shots. Thats all these journalists are good
for, reporting a very narrow angle of events in this
devasted country. And I saw a man in the garden of the
house next to us told to leave his garden by the
American soldiers. One in a humvee even pointed his
machine gun at him and threatened to use it.
We left the scene to go up to Saduun Street where the
Al-Hattab Restaurant and Agadir Hotel are situated. Here
the Americans had closed of the end of the street we
were on and we could hear people saying that the
Assyrian Church had been hit nearby also. As we stood on
this street, a man passed us, clearly in shock,
screaming "They're innocent, what did they do wrong,
what did they do wrong, they're innocent!" He asked if I
was a journalist, my translator said that no I was not.
Other men said "yes you are, you are journalist scum
writing about us and not caring" - such is the ordinary
Iraqi's regard for Western journalists. My translaotor
informed them that I was certainly not a journalist,
pointing to my poor little broken camera and explained
that I actually lived in Kerrada near the church. They
calmed down then.
Then a woman ran up the empty, cleared road crying, her
head in her hands as she hurried along, looking for her
family. Then they came out of the next street up and she
ran over to them. Her relief at seeing her loved ones
alive and unhurt was overwhelming.
We crossed and went down this street and met Katarina
(the Christian lady I have written about before) and her
son, Zaid and her friend. They were all upset. Katarina
goes to the church every Sunday to collect her pension
from there. She had not been there when the bomb had
gone off but her friend had. She was deeply upset and
had actually seen two men drive up in two cars and park
the cars up and leave. So it was not a suicide attack
but two car bombs.
Other people gathered around this area and next to me
another women broke down in tears - her family were
still inside the church and she did not know if they
were alive, injured or dead. Next to her, a young man
sat on the kerbside, his body wracked in grief as he
cried and cried.
Initial reports coming from the area of the church were
saying that 4 people had been killed and some 55 were
injured.
I rang my mum while all this was going on. She was
watching it on the news and told me there had been five
such bombs at this time. So there were five scenes of
horror, death, destruction, chaos and grief going on
around Bagdad as I witnessed this tragic scene.
We left the area and made our way back down to the main
street and to out appartment. We just wanted to check
the windows, although we were sure they would be okay as
the appartment faces away from the church. They were.
But the Butcher opposite us was sitting under our
window, quite clearly shaken. One of the big glass panes
in his shop had been blown out - they were sweeping up
the mess. Then I noticed other shops on the main street
had lost their windows, including the little shop over
the road where we buy bottled water when the tap runs
dry - he charges 400 dinar a bottle, 100 dinar cheaper
than everywhere else!
So I am here now trying to type about what I have just
seen, but I am deeply upset and when I started typing my
hands were still shaking just a little. Somehow it hits
you more when these things happen in your own
neighbourhood amongst and effecting people you know. It
is very close to home. And I like everyone else wonder
what monsters could do such a thing - what have churches
got to do with the American occupation of Iraq and all
the horror that this now proven poorly thought out
invasion brought?
And what do Iraqis say: "Why?" and "These things never
happened before"

After I made the above report, we returned to the
appartment on a bus. The driver was going home and did
not want passengers, but he let us get on anyway as we
were not going far. He chatted about the bomb. He had
been driving his bus when the bombs went off and just
after he had picked up a woman and her 4 children - they
were covered head to toe in blood and were trying to get
to a hospital. We told him how many churches had been
attacked. He was a Muslim bus driver and he said "They
are Christians - what did they do wrong, they don't
deserve this".
At our appartement we noticed that the butcher had
already replaced his glass.
We went in our appartment and it was so hot that we
immediately opened the windows and door to the balcony
onto the street below us. As I opened the window, the
glass nearly fell out onto me. The blast had not smashed
the glass, but it had blown the windows backwards in the
metal frames and they had come very loose in both the
door and the windows. So we now have to repair them
before the glass does come out and break.
We sat on the balcony as the electric was off, probably
due to the bomb. Ammar, the Christian shop keeper who
has a shop near our old appartment, was just leaving the
bakery next door.We called to him to see if he was all
right. Yes, he was - but his uncle had been in the other
church in Kerrada, the Assyrian Catholic one, about 250
metres from the one we were at. And his uncle had been
injured in the bomb - Ammar, as you would expect, was
very upset.
Later, the street generator came on and we were able to
watch the news showing the devastation and destruction
of all the bombs. After the news on the station called
'Ashur Test' (one of the 3 terrestrial TV stations here
in Iraq) they played hymns and then a Christian church
service was aired for about one hour.
I don't know why this happened, why Christians would be
targetted like this, or who is behind this. But I do
know that if it was an attempt to divide the communities
in Iraq, it will not work. In Kerrada, where I live,
Christians and Muslims live next door to one
another.They are friends, use each others' shops and
services and live together in peace and harmony.
Tragedies/crimes like this only serve to pull the
communities together as Muslims ask their Christian
neighbours of their's and their familiy's well being and
help them with genuine concern. And of course many
Muslims would have been effected too when their homes
and shops lost glass etc.

Everyone here in Iraq is tired of bombs targetting the
wrong people. No one wants the Americans here any more,
but attacks like this do little to end the continuing
occupation and the Iraqi people see it this way too.
They want the occupation and the bombs to stop and to
stop now.

All for now
Helen Williams
Living amoungst Iraqis in Bagdad.
From Newport, South Wales.
Hi
Bagdad 1 August 2004
I am typing this with great difficulty as I have just
left the scene of a horrible car bomb here in Kerrada
some 50 metres from my appartment.
About 1 an 1/2 hours ago I was emailing some photos home
of a cluster bomb victim in Bagdad Internet cafe on the
main street in Kerrada. We heard a bomb go off nearby
and the building shook a bit and people got up and
looked out of the window. The street outside was
continuing as normal although people were looking around
a bit. I carried on my work for 5 minutes or so. Then
suddenly 'Booooom' a huge devasting explosion happened.
The building shook and there was dust everywhere and the
sound of glass breaking. This time we were up and away
(we even forgot to pay) as we hurried off. We ran in the
heat up the main street taking a left into the
residential and hotel area of Kerrada. At first I
thought that the Casabalanca or Andulous Palace Hotel
had been hit. But no - it was the main Catholic Church
in amongst the houses here. This church is big and
beautiful with a huge high Christian cross at the front
of it forming a high arch. As we approached we saw many
injured people running from the scene of the blast in
shock, faces and clothes smattered in blood. These were
the people that could run away, able to move away from
the scene. People had started to gather as had the Iraqi
Police and the well-paid journalists with their minders
and bullet proof jackets. In the area in front of the
church there were many cars that had been driving past
when the explosion had occurred. They were stuck here
now, as if frozen in time, unable to move and covered in
dust, all of their windscreens smashed. The occupants of
the vehicles had not moved from them - they were just
sat there in shock. The Iraqi Police did a good job
getting the cars moved away so that emergency vehicles
could get to the scene. I watched as one poor middle
aged lady tried to move her torn and battered car, tears
rolling down here face and blood on her face and neck
from glass cuts from the smashed windscreen.
Right outside the church was a huge fire and here were
the two cars that had been used as bombs - smashed to
bits, blackened shells and unrecognisable as cars.
People here were being taken from their now windowless
cars, unable to move themsleves due to their injuries.
They were covered in blood. Other men and women were
running back and fro across this residential street in
panic and disarray. They were shouting and crying and
many were covered in blood.
A large house next to the church appeared to have taken
the full force of the blast, the top floor badly
damaged. Thankfully, I saw the residents of the house
leaving by the outside stairs - I hope it was everyone
inside. As we stood there, more explosions went off as
cars caught fire and their petrol tanks blew up. The
black smoke and fire from the explosion reached up high
into the evening sky. Then suddenly there was another
bang as the electric power lines and pole they were
attached to caught fire.
The Iraqi Police managed to move everyone back calmly
and politely and we watched as more and more injured
people left the scene on foot or drove their cars away.
Every building around had lost its glass and people all
around us were visibly shaken and upset.
Then the ambulances started to arrive - some of these
are damaged and we in rich Britain would discard them as
unfit to be ambulances. But this is poor old Iraq - one
of them had its cracked windscreen held in with sticky
tape!
Then Mohammed Saduun and Hayder (2 of the street boys
arrived) on the scene. So it seemed everyone was here
before the Americans. Then they came, gun ho, rude and
unpleasant as always. I heard one of them telling the
bystanders to "get the f**k out of here" as we were
moving back up the road. I told him off - he said there
was not time to talk. I told him I would be listening
out and there was no need for his coarse language and he
calmed down a bit.
The next thing they did was throw razor wire across the
road and then stop the fire engines and ambulances in
the middle of all the by-standers and check it for
bombs!! They are incredible.
During the course of these events I watched the
Sheraton/Palestine journalists enter the bomb zone with
their press passes and climb up on the fire engines to
get better shots. Thats all these journalists are good
for, reporting a very narrow angle of events in this
devasted country. And I saw a man in the garden of the
house next to us told to leave his garden by the
American soldiers. One in a humvee even pointed his
machine gun at him and threatened to use it.
We left the scene to go up to Saduun Street where the
Al-Hattab Restaurant and Agadir Hotel are situated. Here
the Americans had closed of the end of the street we
were on and we could hear people saying that the
Assyrian Church had been hit nearby also. As we stood on
this street, a man passed us, clearly in shock,
screaming "They're innocent, what did they do wrong,
what did they do wrong, they're innocent!" He asked if I
was a journalist, my translator said that no I was not.
Other men said "yes you are, you are journalist scum
writing about us and not caring" - such is the ordinary
Iraqi's regard for Western journalists. My translaotor
informed them that I was certainly not a journalist,
pointing to my poor little broken camera and explained
that I actually lived in Kerrada near the church. They
calmed down then.
Then a woman ran up the empty, cleared road crying, her
head in her hands as she hurried along, looking for her
family. Then they came out of the next street up and she
ran over to them. Her relief at seeing her loved ones
alive and unhurt was overwhelming.
We crossed and went down this street and met Katarina
(the Christian lady I have written about before) and her
son, Zaid and her friend. They were all upset. Katarina
goes to the church every Sunday to collect her pension
from there. She had not been there when the bomb had
gone off but her friend had. She was deeply upset and
had actually seen two men drive up in two cars and park
the cars up and leave. So it was not a suicide attack
but two car bombs.
Other people gathered around this area and next to me
another women broke down in tears - her family were
still inside the church and she did not know if they
were alive, injured or dead. Next to her, a young man
sat on the kerbside, his body wracked in grief as he
cried and cried.
Initial reports coming from the area of the church were
saying that 4 people had been killed and some 55 were
injured.
I rang my mum while all this was going on. She was
watching it on the news and told me there had been five
such bombs at this time. So there were five scenes of
horror, death, destruction, chaos and grief going on
around Bagdad as I witnessed this tragic scene.
We left the area and made our way back down to the main
street and to out appartment. We just wanted to check
the windows, although we were sure they would be okay as
the appartment faces away from the church. They were.
But the Butcher opposite us was sitting under our
window, quite clearly shaken. One of the big glass panes
in his shop had been blown out - they were sweeping up
the mess. Then I noticed other shops on the main street
had lost their windows, including the little shop over
the road where we buy bottled water when the tap runs
dry - he charges 400 dinar a bottle, 100 dinar cheaper
than everywhere else!
So I am here now trying to type about what I have just
seen, but I am deeply upset and when I started typing my
hands were still shaking just a little. Somehow it hits
you more when these things happen in your own
neighbourhood amongst and effecting people you know. It
is very close to home. And I like everyone else wonder
what monsters could do such a thing - what have churches
got to do with the American occupation of Iraq and all
the horror that this now proven poorly thought out
invasion brought?
And what do Iraqis say: "Why?" and "These things never
happened before"

After I made the above report, we returned to the
appartment on a bus. The driver was going home and did
not want passengers, but he let us get on anyway as we
were not going far. He chatted about the bomb. He had
been driving his bus when the bombs went off and just
after he had picked up a woman and her 4 children - they
were covered head to toe in blood and were trying to get
to a hospital. We told him how many churches had been
attacked. He was a Muslim bus driver and he said "They
are Christians - what did they do wrong, they don't
deserve this".
At our appartement we noticed that the butcher had
already replaced his glass.
We went in our appartment and it was so hot that we
immediately opened the windows and door to the balcony
onto the street below us. As I opened the window, the
glass nearly fell out onto me. The blast had not smashed
the glass, but it had blown the windows backwards in the
metal frames and they had come very loose in both the
door and the windows. So we now have to repair them
before the glass does come out and break.
We sat on the balcony as the electric was off, probably
due to the bomb. Ammar, the Christian shop keeper who
has a shop near our old appartment, was just leaving the
bakery next door.We called to him to see if he was all
right. Yes, he was - but his uncle had been in the other
church in Kerrada, the Assyrian Catholic one, about 250
metres from the one we were at. And his uncle had been
injured in the bomb - Ammar, as you would expect, was
very upset.
Later, the street generator came on and we were able to
watch the news showing the devastation and destruction
of all the bombs. After the news on the station called
'Ashur Test' (one of the 3 terrestrial TV stations here
in Iraq) they played hymns and then a Christian church
service was aired for about one hour.
I don't know why this happened, why Christians would be
targetted like this, or who is behind this. But I do
know that if it was an attempt to divide the communities
in Iraq, it will not work. In Kerrada, where I live,
Christians and Muslims live next door to one
another.They are friends, use each others' shops and
services and live together in peace and harmony.
Tragedies/crimes like this only serve to pull the
communities together as Muslims ask their Christian
neighbours of their's and their familiy's well being and
help them with genuine concern. And of course many
Muslims would have been effected too when their homes
and shops lost glass etc.

Everyone here in Iraq is tired of bombs targetting the
wrong people. No one wants the Americans here any more,
but attacks like this do little to end the continuing
occupation and the Iraqi people see it this way too.
They want the occupation and the bombs to stop and to
stop now.

All for now
Helen Williams
Living amoungst Iraqis in Bagdad.
From Newport, South Wales.
Hi
Bagdad 1 August 2004
I am typing this with great difficulty as I have just
left the scene of a horrible car bomb here in Kerrada
some 50 metres from my appartment.
About 1 an 1/2 hours ago I was emailing some photos home
of a cluster bomb victim in Bagdad Internet cafe on the
main street in Kerrada. We heard a bomb go off nearby
and the building shook a bit and people got up and
looked out of the window. The street outside was
continuing as normal although people were looking around
a bit. I carried on my work for 5 minutes or so. Then
suddenly 'Booooom' a huge devasting explosion happened.
The building shook and there was dust everywhere and the
sound of glass breaking. This time we were up and away
(we even forgot to pay) as we hurried off. We ran in the
heat up the main street taking a left into the
residential and hotel area of Kerrada. At first I
thought that the Casabalanca or Andulous Palace Hotel
had been hit. But no - it was the main Catholic Church
in amongst the houses here. This church is big and
beautiful with a huge high Christian cross at the front
of it forming a high arch. As we approached we saw many
injured people running from the scene of the blast in
shock, faces and clothes smattered in blood. These were
the people that could run away, able to move away from
the scene. People had started to gather as had the Iraqi
Police and the well-paid journalists with their minders
and bullet proof jackets. In the area in front of the
church there were many cars that had been driving past
when the explosion had occurred. They were stuck here
now, as if frozen in time, unable to move and covered in
dust, all of their windscreens smashed. The occupants of
the vehicles had not moved from them - they were just
sat there in shock. The Iraqi Police did a good job
getting the cars moved away so that emergency vehicles
could get to the scene. I watched as one poor middle
aged lady tried to move her torn and battered car, tears
rolling down here face and blood on her face and neck
from glass cuts from the smashed windscreen.
Right outside the church was a huge fire and here were
the two cars that had been used as bombs - smashed to
bits, blackened shells and unrecognisable as cars.
People here were being taken from their now windowless
cars, unable to move themsleves due to their injuries.
They were covered in blood. Other men and women were
running back and fro across this residential street in
panic and disarray. They were shouting and crying and
many were covered in blood.
A large house next to the church appeared to have taken
the full force of the blast, the top floor badly
damaged. Thankfully, I saw the residents of the house
leaving by the outside stairs - I hope it was everyone
inside. As we stood there, more explosions went off as
cars caught fire and their petrol tanks blew up. The
black smoke and fire from the explosion reached up high
into the evening sky. Then suddenly there was another
bang as the electric power lines and pole they were
attached to caught fire.
The Iraqi Police managed to move everyone back calmly
and politely and we watched as more and more injured
people left the scene on foot or drove their cars away.
Every building around had lost its glass and people all
around us were visibly shaken and upset.
Then the ambulances started to arrive - some of these
are damaged and we in rich Britain would discard them as
unfit to be ambulances. But this is poor old Iraq - one
of them had its cracked windscreen held in with sticky
tape!
Then Mohammed Saduun and Hayder (2 of the street boys
arrived) on the scene. So it seemed everyone was here
before the Americans. Then they came, gun ho, rude and
unpleasant as always. I heard one of them telling the
bystanders to "get the f**k out of here" as we were
moving back up the road. I told him off - he said there
was not time to talk. I told him I would be listening
out and there was no need for his coarse language and he
calmed down a bit.
The next thing they did was throw razor wire across the
road and then stop the fire engines and ambulances in
the middle of all the by-standers and check it for
bombs!! They are incredible.
During the course of these events I watched the
Sheraton/Palestine journalists enter the bomb zone with
their press passes and climb up on the fire engines to
get better shots. Thats all these journalists are good
for, reporting a very narrow angle of events in this
devasted country. And I saw a man in the garden of the
house next to us told to leave his garden by the
American soldiers. One in a humvee even pointed his
machine gun at him and threatened to use it.
We left the scene to go up to Saduun Street where the
Al-Hattab Restaurant and Agadir Hotel are situated. Here
the Americans had closed of the end of the street we
were on and we could hear people saying that the
Assyrian Church had been hit nearby also. As we stood on
this street, a man passed us, clearly in shock,
screaming "They're innocent, what did they do wrong,
what did they do wrong, they're innocent!" He asked if I
was a journalist, my translator said that no I was not.
Other men said "yes you are, you are journalist scum
writing about us and not caring" - such is the ordinary
Iraqi's regard for Western journalists. My translaotor
informed them that I was certainly not a journalist,
pointing to my poor little broken camera and explained
that I actually lived in Kerrada near the church. They
calmed down then.
Then a woman ran up the empty, cleared road crying, her
head in her hands as she hurried along, looking for her
family. Then they came out of the next street up and she
ran over to them. Her relief at seeing her loved ones
alive and unhurt was overwhelming.
We crossed and went down this street and met Katarina
(the Christian lady I have written about before) and her
son, Zaid and her friend. They were all upset. Katarina
goes to the church every Sunday to collect her pension
from there. She had not been there when the bomb had
gone off but her friend had. She was deeply upset and
had actually seen two men drive up in two cars and park
the cars up and leave. So it was not a suicide attack
but two car bombs.
Other people gathered around this area and next to me
another women broke down in tears - her family were
still inside the church and she did not know if they
were alive, injured or dead. Next to her, a young man
sat on the kerbside, his body wracked in grief as he
cried and cried.
Initial reports coming from the area of the church were
saying that 4 people had been killed and some 55 were
injured.
I rang my mum while all this was going on. She was
watching it on the news and told me there had been five
such bombs at this time. So there were five scenes of
horror, death, destruction, chaos and grief going on
around Bagdad as I witnessed this tragic scene.
We left the area and made our way back down to the main
street and to out appartment. We just wanted to check
the windows, although we were sure they would be okay as
the appartment faces away from the church. They were.
But the Butcher opposite us was sitting under our
window, quite clearly shaken. One of the big glass panes
in his shop had been blown out - they were sweeping up
the mess. Then I noticed other shops on the main street
had lost their windows, including the little shop over
the road where we buy bottled water when the tap runs
dry - he charges 400 dinar a bottle, 100 dinar cheaper
than everywhere else!
So I am here now trying to type about what I have just
seen, but I am deeply upset and when I started typing my
hands were still shaking just a little. Somehow it hits
you more when these things happen in your own
neighbourhood amongst and effecting people you know. It
is very close to home. And I like everyone else wonder
what monsters could do such a thing - what have churches
got to do with the American occupation of Iraq and all
the horror that this now proven poorly thought out
invasion brought?
And what do Iraqis say: "Why?" and "These things never
happened before"

After I made the above report, we returned to the
appartment on a bus. The driver was going home and did
not want passengers, but he let us get on anyway as we
were not going far. He chatted about the bomb. He had
been driving his bus when the bombs went off and just
after he had picked up a woman and her 4 children - they
were covered head to toe in blood and were trying to get
to a hospital. We told him how many churches had been
attacked. He was a Muslim bus driver and he said "They
are Christians - what did they do wrong, they don't
deserve this".
At our appartement we noticed that the butcher had
already replaced his glass.
We went in our appartment and it was so hot that we
immediately opened the windows and door to the balcony
onto the street below us. As I opened the window, the
glass nearly fell out onto me. The blast had not smashed
the glass, but it had blown the windows backwards in the
metal frames and they had come very loose in both the
door and the windows. So we now have to repair them
before the glass does come out and break.
We sat on the balcony as the electric was off, probably
due to the bomb. Ammar, the Christian shop keeper who
has a shop near our old appartment, was just leaving the
bakery next door.We called to him to see if he was all
right. Yes, he was - but his uncle had been in the other
church in Kerrada, the Assyrian Catholic one, about 250
metres from the one we were at. And his uncle had been
injured in the bomb - Ammar, as you would expect, was
very upset.
Later, the street generator came on and we were able to
watch the news showing the devastation and destruction
of all the bombs. After the news on the station called
'Ashur Test' (one of the 3 terrestrial TV stations here
in Iraq) they played hymns and then a Christian church
service was aired for about one hour.
I don't know why this happened, why Christians would be
targetted like this, or who is behind this. But I do
know that if it was an attempt to divide the communities
in Iraq, it will not work. In Kerrada, where I live,
Christians and Muslims live next door to one
another.They are friends, use each others' shops and
services and live together in peace and harmony.
Tragedies/crimes like this only serve to pull the
communities together as Muslims ask their Christian
neighbours of their's and their familiy's well being and
help them with genuine concern. And of course many
Muslims would have been effected too when their homes
and shops lost glass etc.

Everyone here in Iraq is tired of bombs targetting the
wrong people. No one wants the Americans here any more,
but attacks like this do little to end the continuing
occupation and the Iraqi people see it this way too.
They want the occupation and the bombs to stop and to
stop now.

All for now
Helen Williams
Living amoungst Iraqis in Bagdad.
From Newport, South Wales.