It's been almost 13 days since the Iraqi army and police supported by American troops started to carry out the new security plan, did anything change??
I think, yeah, actually there are things that have changed, now we have more blocked streets, and more fake checkpoints and patrols who practice sectarian violence in day and night.
It became almost impossible for people who lives in Karkh side to come to Alrasafa side on time and vice versa.
During my final exams in college, some students couldn't make it to college, others were like 2 hours late, because all streets and bridges are blocked, the rest suffered a lot to come to college and they had to bear the bad language and tirades of the soldiers in every single checkpoint.
The streets are still empty and filled with horror, gunmen and militias are still roaming the streets even in the presence of American or Iraqi patrols.
its really funny that the policy of those patrols is that if those gunmen won't hit us we won't hit them, so they can do whatever they want to do to the harmless people as long as they don't shoot us.
I think this is really what making Maliki and his crap security plan successful.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Friday, February 09, 2007
Life in Baghdad
Life in baghdad is like Hell, I used the term Hell and yet its worse than hell. People are locked up in their homes trying to be safe and yet they're not safe enough. streets are almost empty all the time and though they aren't safe enough.
All life's activites are stopped, for me I stopped going to school two months ago, and now I only go there if I have an exam or an important lab.
Life in Baghdad became less meaningful, there is no life in the city, people are scared to go out, they are afraid of fake police patrols or fake check points, they are afraid of random explosions, they are afraid of black militias and gunmen who would kill people for sectarian reasons.Horro is everywhere, people are terrified even from their own shadows.
My life became less active since I got back to Baghdad in Oct. 10th, Now I stay at home 24 hours a day, without going out, I only go out if I had to do something important or go to college if I had an exam, otherwise, I won't go out, because it's too dangerous to be out in the streets.
Being locked up at home is a very sad experience that I'm going through, there's too much emptiness in our lives nowadays, too much horror and too much grieve for the innocent people who are dying everday.
I lost several friends of mine, because they died either in a field of action or due to sectarian violence.
my long-time neighbour died during a random mortar shells attack on our neighbourhood, one of the shells fell on his house and killed him.
I stopped seeing my best friends for a long time ago, because its dangerous to go to other neighbourhoods to see them.
Due to secterian violence, now we have sunni and shiite neighbourhoods, and thus a sunni man can't enter a shiite neighbourhood and vice versa.
For this reason, I haven't gone to some places for a long time, because its too dangerous for a sunni man to go there, because gunmen would kill me just because I'm sunni.
Now people are even afraid to say their full names or in which district they live, we started to experience this even at college, some of our friends changed their names and made fake IDs for themselves, trying to protect themselves, others just left their houses and their neighbourhoods and moved to another places because they recieved death threats, such threats said "either you leave the area, or you will be killed", my ex-girlfriend and her family were forced to leave their house, she was a shiite living in a sunni distrist, and her family recieved a death threats telling them to evacuate their house in 24 hours or they all will be killed, other friends of mine just couldn't stand the situation and left the country and went to Jordan or Syria.
On the other hand in college, most students are failing in all their exams, they can't concentrate on studying while living in such horror and terror, I don't know how I managed to pass all my exams, but it is very hard to focus on studying while people are dying in the streets for no reasons.
So the situation in Baghdad is painful as much as it's dangerous, people can't keep on the right track anymore, everone is confused and scared.
The only victim of this situation is the good Iraqi people, whom their lives became shortened on just eating and sleeping and try to survive for another day.
All life's activites are stopped, for me I stopped going to school two months ago, and now I only go there if I have an exam or an important lab.
Life in Baghdad became less meaningful, there is no life in the city, people are scared to go out, they are afraid of fake police patrols or fake check points, they are afraid of random explosions, they are afraid of black militias and gunmen who would kill people for sectarian reasons.Horro is everywhere, people are terrified even from their own shadows.
My life became less active since I got back to Baghdad in Oct. 10th, Now I stay at home 24 hours a day, without going out, I only go out if I had to do something important or go to college if I had an exam, otherwise, I won't go out, because it's too dangerous to be out in the streets.
Being locked up at home is a very sad experience that I'm going through, there's too much emptiness in our lives nowadays, too much horror and too much grieve for the innocent people who are dying everday.
I lost several friends of mine, because they died either in a field of action or due to sectarian violence.
my long-time neighbour died during a random mortar shells attack on our neighbourhood, one of the shells fell on his house and killed him.
I stopped seeing my best friends for a long time ago, because its dangerous to go to other neighbourhoods to see them.
Due to secterian violence, now we have sunni and shiite neighbourhoods, and thus a sunni man can't enter a shiite neighbourhood and vice versa.
For this reason, I haven't gone to some places for a long time, because its too dangerous for a sunni man to go there, because gunmen would kill me just because I'm sunni.
Now people are even afraid to say their full names or in which district they live, we started to experience this even at college, some of our friends changed their names and made fake IDs for themselves, trying to protect themselves, others just left their houses and their neighbourhoods and moved to another places because they recieved death threats, such threats said "either you leave the area, or you will be killed", my ex-girlfriend and her family were forced to leave their house, she was a shiite living in a sunni distrist, and her family recieved a death threats telling them to evacuate their house in 24 hours or they all will be killed, other friends of mine just couldn't stand the situation and left the country and went to Jordan or Syria.
On the other hand in college, most students are failing in all their exams, they can't concentrate on studying while living in such horror and terror, I don't know how I managed to pass all my exams, but it is very hard to focus on studying while people are dying in the streets for no reasons.
So the situation in Baghdad is painful as much as it's dangerous, people can't keep on the right track anymore, everone is confused and scared.
The only victim of this situation is the good Iraqi people, whom their lives became shortened on just eating and sleeping and try to survive for another day.
Another terrifying day
Yesterday was round 2 of mortar attacks on my neighbourhood. Over 20 mortar missiles fell on the neighbourhood and caused 30 deaths and injuries. Here is my side of the story:
I was at my grandmah's house which happens to be next door to my house. Me and my cousin were at the back garden playing soccer and mocking each other. Suddenly we heard a very loud noise of mortar missile passing over us. I said "did you hear it?" and by the time he was saying "yes", a huge explosion took place. It was very close to us, we couldn't tell where it exactly fell as it was too close. We ran inside my grandmah's house and waited there for several minutes.
Shortly after that, we heard screaming, shouting and people running in the street, we ran out to the street to see what happened.
At first, I couldn't see as there was alot of dust and ashes in the air, then my vision cleared and I saw smoke clouds coming out from the roof of the house of my neighbour which is in front of my house. Instinctively I ran with the people to the inside of my neighbour's house to check for survivers. There were women all over the place shouting and screaming "help him, help him, he is at the roof", meanwhile mortar missiles were falling here and there very close to us. Me and several people ran to the roof of the house, and there was my neighbour lying on the floor with his legs got cut due to the explosion and he was severly bleeding and there was blood stains all over him. I was completely shocked, scared and terrified, I stood there and didn't know what to do. A man who was standing next to me shouted on me "come on!, grab him with me, lets take him to the hospital." I ran to him and carried my neighbour with him, we went down to the street carrying my neighbour where a kind man stopped his car and took us with him to the hospital.
Although I tied his cut off legs and squeezed on it trying to stop the bleeding, but by the time we arrived to the hospital, he was already gone, as he was bleeding severely.
In the hospital they didn't do anything to him, because he was already dead, they took him to the bodies refrigerator.shortly after his son (my neighbour's son) arrived to the hospital, he was shouting and crying "where is he? I wanna see him." We went to the bodies refrigerator, and it wasn't actually a refrigerator, bodies were lying on the floor, as there were too many bodies and there weren't enough rooms for them in the frig. The view of the bodies lying on the floor was very disgusting and sad, most of the bodies were victims of the mortar attacks.
Anyway, my neighbour relatives came to the hospital and brought a coffin for their dead relative, we took the body and headed back to my neighbour house, so that his wife and kids can see him for the last time before they bury him. I told them not to take him to his parents, because it would be very painful for his kids to see their father dead and his legs cut off. Anyway, his son insisted on taking him back home. We took him back to his house, and there was his wife and kids waiting for him and by that time they didn't know whether their father was dead or not. By the time they saw the coffin they started screaming, shouting and crying. I was very touched seeing the tears of his little kids crying with so much pain.
Shortly after that, his son said "lets take him to the cemetery, I want him to be buried before it gets dark". so they took him to the cemetery right away. they considerd him as a martyr.(In islam the martyr should be buried right away, with his blood and with his clothes he was wearing when he died). Anyway, we went to the cemetery, and the handlers started to bury him. I was standing with my cousin, near them watching them, before they were done closing his grave, another round of mortar attacks took place very very close to the cemetery, people just started to run and left his grave not completely closed, Me and my cousin closed his grave and ran to the car and headed back home.
When me and my cousin went back, my neighbours told us that another mortar missile fell on my grandmah's house but it didn't explode. Thank god it didn't explode because my grandmah was alone in the house.
Thats what happened yesterday. God knows what more can happen.
I was at my grandmah's house which happens to be next door to my house. Me and my cousin were at the back garden playing soccer and mocking each other. Suddenly we heard a very loud noise of mortar missile passing over us. I said "did you hear it?" and by the time he was saying "yes", a huge explosion took place. It was very close to us, we couldn't tell where it exactly fell as it was too close. We ran inside my grandmah's house and waited there for several minutes.
Shortly after that, we heard screaming, shouting and people running in the street, we ran out to the street to see what happened.
At first, I couldn't see as there was alot of dust and ashes in the air, then my vision cleared and I saw smoke clouds coming out from the roof of the house of my neighbour which is in front of my house. Instinctively I ran with the people to the inside of my neighbour's house to check for survivers. There were women all over the place shouting and screaming "help him, help him, he is at the roof", meanwhile mortar missiles were falling here and there very close to us. Me and several people ran to the roof of the house, and there was my neighbour lying on the floor with his legs got cut due to the explosion and he was severly bleeding and there was blood stains all over him. I was completely shocked, scared and terrified, I stood there and didn't know what to do. A man who was standing next to me shouted on me "come on!, grab him with me, lets take him to the hospital." I ran to him and carried my neighbour with him, we went down to the street carrying my neighbour where a kind man stopped his car and took us with him to the hospital.
Although I tied his cut off legs and squeezed on it trying to stop the bleeding, but by the time we arrived to the hospital, he was already gone, as he was bleeding severely.
In the hospital they didn't do anything to him, because he was already dead, they took him to the bodies refrigerator.shortly after his son (my neighbour's son) arrived to the hospital, he was shouting and crying "where is he? I wanna see him." We went to the bodies refrigerator, and it wasn't actually a refrigerator, bodies were lying on the floor, as there were too many bodies and there weren't enough rooms for them in the frig. The view of the bodies lying on the floor was very disgusting and sad, most of the bodies were victims of the mortar attacks.
Anyway, my neighbour relatives came to the hospital and brought a coffin for their dead relative, we took the body and headed back to my neighbour house, so that his wife and kids can see him for the last time before they bury him. I told them not to take him to his parents, because it would be very painful for his kids to see their father dead and his legs cut off. Anyway, his son insisted on taking him back home. We took him back to his house, and there was his wife and kids waiting for him and by that time they didn't know whether their father was dead or not. By the time they saw the coffin they started screaming, shouting and crying. I was very touched seeing the tears of his little kids crying with so much pain.
Shortly after that, his son said "lets take him to the cemetery, I want him to be buried before it gets dark". so they took him to the cemetery right away. they considerd him as a martyr.(In islam the martyr should be buried right away, with his blood and with his clothes he was wearing when he died). Anyway, we went to the cemetery, and the handlers started to bury him. I was standing with my cousin, near them watching them, before they were done closing his grave, another round of mortar attacks took place very very close to the cemetery, people just started to run and left his grave not completely closed, Me and my cousin closed his grave and ran to the car and headed back home.
When me and my cousin went back, my neighbours told us that another mortar missile fell on my grandmah's house but it didn't explode. Thank god it didn't explode because my grandmah was alone in the house.
Thats what happened yesterday. God knows what more can happen.
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