By Aws al-Sharqy, IOL Iraq Correspondent

BAGHDAD, March 20 (IslamOnline.net) - Six hours after the first wave of U.S. bombardment which claimd the live of one civilian and left several others wounded, Baghdad was still on high alert and Iraqis stood ready to deter the aggression with high morale.

Standing shoulder to shoulder, Al-Quds army and volunteers have been deployed in the streets and alleys of Baghdad to defend their motherland.

Some shops have opened their doors after one day of closure, special committees have been set up to supervise the opening of all bakeries, pharmacies and fuel stations and traffic is back to normal.

“I can say that the people here are in high spirit…I myself was motivated by such remarkable steadfastness of the Iraqi people in the face of the barbers (Americans) and decided to work around-the-clock,” Salwa al-Rabeii, a pharmacist, told IslamOnline.net.

“The people here know that they have a cause and Allah would help them crush the invaders,” he said.

Civilians Injured

In the meantime, a U.S. missile was fired at al-Dorra area, one of Baghdad’s biggest residential areas, leaving a number of Iraqi civilians injured.

A spokesman for the U.S. troops claimed the raids did not intentionally target civilians.

However, al-Dorra’s mayor Abdul Rahman al-Hashami hit out, asserting “the Americans are liars as they always used to be.

“It is a residential area and has nothing to do with the Iraqi military…They (the U.S. troops) are fully aware that there is a number of human shields in this area coming from the U.S., France and Belgium to protect the Iraqi civilians and civil institutions,” he charged.

Abdul Hussein al-Gharawi, an Iraqi journalist, told IslamOnline.net by phone that the morale of the people in al-Basra was high, especially after they knew that two Iraqi missiles had been fired at the U.S. troops in Kuwait and the Iraqi artillery had bombarded the U.S. forces trying to cross the Iraqi borders.

It has been also reported that an intense fire exchange has taken place between the U.S. and the Iraqi troops, causing the U.S. special forces to take to their heels.

In al-Mosul governorate, the situation was calm following three air raids, the last of which ended at 12:55 P.M. (Iraq local time), Akram Tawfiq, the correspondent of the Iraqi news agency in the city, told IslamOnline.net.

“The sound of anti-aircraft defense systems firing at the U.S. warships has also been heard as Iraqi security forces have been deployed in the city,” he said.

The most noticeable thing was the praise-worthy solidarity and coordination between Iraqi clans for the first time ever, said Tawfiq.

No U.S. troops or tanks have been reported in the city yet, he added.