BAGHDAD,
March 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - It almost, if not
certainly, seems as if we are going to hear about a myriad of U.S.
massacres in Iraq day in and day out.
Today,
Wednesday, March 26, news agencies reported the killing of at least 29
Iraqi civilians in ancient Baghdad and its outskirts, which were
pounded anew by the U.S.-led occupation forces, in addition to another
1000 Iraqis in an-Najaf in just 72 hours.
Baghdad,
this working-class city known as "the city of the people,"
was picking up the pieces in grief and in rage after the barbaric
U.S.-led attack.
Tawfiq
Radi Farhan, a street vendor, said he watched them slaughtered before
his very own eyes.
"I
was sitting outside when the missile hit. Cars caught fire and I
myself saw people martyred and wounded. Thank God I didn't get
hurt," he, still shaken, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Piles
of rubble lay in the street, as a dull rain watered down the pools of
blood. Something far heavier than the debris weighed on people's
hearts.
Bombing
Women, Children
"They
say they only aim at military targets," shouted Ali Sami, who
said he was a loyal supporter of Saddam Hussein's Baath party.
"And then they launch bombs on our women and children."
U.S.
President George W. Bush "will be crushed under our boots!"
one man wailed.
Friends
and neighbors pitched in to try to salvage the remaining belongings of
those who lived, and console the relatives of those who didn't.
Seif
Jamal, a 20-year-old student, rushed down his narrow stairway carrying
a charred television on his shoulder.
"A
missile landed on the sidewalk and the shrapnel flew into our
house," he said. "My other electronic equipment is burnt,
and lots of furniture."
Abdul
Jabbar Ali, a mechanic, said he was with his family when the attack
pounded the apartments, wiping out his garage on the ground floor.
“Miraculously,
We Lived”
"Miraculously,
we lived. Whole sections of walls were crashing down around me, doors
and windows were demolished," said Ali, who escaped with bruises.
His wife and daughter-in-law were taken to hospital wounded, and his
son had a bandaged eye.
Ali
said he saw innocent people incinerated in their cars, and two men
killed who were having lunch in the cafe next door.
Young
firebrands waved machine guns, old ladies shouted -- all of them
venting their fury at the American president, and their undying
support for their own.
They
chanted: "Bush, Bush, listen! We all love Saddam Hussein!"
They
cried: "We sacrifice our blood and our souls for Saddam
Hussein!"
And
one old woman, veiled in black, moved carefully through the mud and
broken pavement, repeating, almost to herself: "Iraq will be
victorious."
