Big Scrap

Yesterday there was a big battle in Najaf in which it's reported that at least 250 insurgents were killed. They were there to carry out a mass killing against Shia clerics who were going to Kerbala for an important Shia religious festival. An alarming element of this is that it was both Shia and Sunni who were there to attack the Shia. Those Shia that were involved have differences of religious opinion which I guess are pretty extreme. Also there were Egyptians and Sudanese terrorists too. A US helicopter was shot down in the fighting, which is apparently still going on.

In Baghdad five school girls were killed after mortar rounds were fired into their school. What can you say about that? It's like so much here. Yesterday an Iraqi colleague told me that a couple of days ago they had witnessed a guy get pulled from his car, then the terrorists stuck an explosive belt on him and stuck some explosives in his car and got him to drive towards an Iraqi army checkpoint where they detonated the explosives by remote control. The guy was apparently driving really slowly and shouting at the guys on the checkpoint to get out of the way, which they did so it only killed a couple of soldiers. Insane. This colleague of mine had gone to their neighbourhood to check on their house. Many of the houses on their street have been deserted for a while but now people are just moving in to the houses. And once they're in, that's it. House is good as gone for the people who once owned it. So my colleagues are trying to find someone to house sit for them but not having much joy at the moment. Can you imagine it? You've saved all your life for your house and then some other bastard just moves in and effectively confiscates it because you had to leave after someone told you you'd be killed if you didn't leave the following morning. Pack an overnight bag and leave your life behind.

There's been a lot of rockets and mortars fired into the IZ in the last 7 days. Yesterday was quiet but before that the US Embassy and one of the compounds that houses a lot of people working on reconstruction were taking a fair few hits. And I think the UN compound had something that went in as well. Nobody died as far as I know but one guy at the US Embassy might lose his leg after getting hit by shrapnel. Luckily for me we're in a safe bit of the IZ, rockets don't tend to land too near our place, though it has happened on the odd occasion.

I went on a tour of Saddam's bunker a few days ago, it was really interesting. First we climbed up to the top of a watchtower and got some amazing 360 degree views of Baghdad. From up there if you cast your eye out beyond the T Walls it looked like a normal city. Deceptive... Then we went into the bunker. A palace was built over the top of it (the Believers Palace) and the bunker was underneath. The palace had been hit by a couple of bunker buster bombs which came in through a point in the dome and detonated when they hit the floor of the main room. The place looked like a student house after a full on party, only bigger. I'll get some pictures up soon.