 Gloom Settles Over The Rubble As The City Braces For Showdown By LARRY KAPLOW Cox News Service BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The neighborhood called Mansour was named after the man who more than 12 centuries ago founded this city, which soon after would become one of the world's grand capitals of science and education. The modern day neighborhood bearing his name is a chic quarter of villas and parks. Much of it lay flattened Wednesday as Baghdad seemed poised for yet another historic reckoning with the outside world. Wednesday ushered in a new stage of the war as air strikes intensified and the mood here seemed to change amid reports that U.S. ground forces are beginning their approach to the city. Baghdad is showing the strains of two weeks of war against Saddam Hussein's regime. In the early days, bomb damage was something you had to seek out. Now, you come across it unexpectedly in most neighborhoods. For the few pedestrians on Baghdad's streets, more than any day yet attacks began, warplanes could be heard and their vapor trails occasionally seen overhead. Missiles or bombs struck hard at the International Trade Fair compound, one of the key attractions in Mansour, about 9:30 a.m. local time Wednesday, turning much of the complex of several large buildings into rubble. The explosions sent a blast wave that smashed windows and caused injuries across the street in a large maternity clinic. "It was like a huge storm that made the glass start exploding," said Ali Abdul Halim, 53, an Egyptian immigrant who works as a custodian in the clinic. Despite years of war and deprivation, Baghdad still draws immigrants looking for opportunity. Like most capitals, government offices here are interspersed with residential and commercial buildings. As the government sites are destroyed, the city around them is battered. Iraqi officials said that at least three people were killed and more than 20 were wounded at the maternity clinic and near the Trade Fair blasts. In a sign of the city's condition, and the growing fear among its 5 million residents, most of the clinic's doctors and nurses had stopped coming to work days ago. They knew that a large security headquarters was near the Trade Fair compound and was a likely target. Several buildings in the city have been hit repeatedly. They include the ornate presidential palace complex, the modern, concrete Ministry of Information, and a stately, colonial-style military office. A 10-story downtown telephone exchange has been bombed so thoroughly that it now appears on the verge of toppling over. It is so laced and pocked that it is almost see-though. Overall, the bombing has been precise. But with so many bombs and missiles falling and anti-aircraft fire being returned, there are nearly daily reports of markets and homes severely damaged or destroyed. Hundreds of dead and wounded are taxing Baghdad's medical system. Adding to the gloom is the unnatural sky, now slate gray with the thick smoke of oil fires set by Iraqi officials, apparently in an attempt to scramble weapons' guidance systems or obscure satellite photography. The smoke doesn't waft away. It hovers in bands over the city, sometimes rising in the sky and at other times settling across neighborhoods and highways. The grimy mix coats the nostrils. Coughs are growing more common. Despite the siege or perhaps because of it, government control seems tighter than ever. In the past, some Iraqi officials would cut corners as a favor or for a fee. Now, any dereliction of duty or any straying from the rules would be taken as betrayal of the state. Foreign journalists are watched closely and accompanied in public by government "minders." Numerous security officials kept reporters from entering or even photographing the Trade Fair compound. It's as hard as ever to figure out what people really think, but their behavior naturally suggests depression and trepidation. Few women and children venture out anymore. Not only are most stores locked or shuttered, many business owners have actually bricked up their doorways and windows, probably in fear of chaos and looting that could follow an invasion. "Of course people are sad. They are targeting everything. Not just government buildings," said Mohammed Mahmoud, a 40-year-old driver on a street corner where haggard-looking men smacked dominoes and clacked backgammon dice. The men spoke to an American reporter in front of a government translator. Mahmoud and his friends took the usual defiant line, vowing to fight the Americans and to die for Baghdad. But the scene was nonsensical: The men assert that Baghdadis are not afraid and will never abandon their city, while around them are nearly empty roads and shuttered shops and the rumble of bombs detonating in the distance. But the city's residents appear to be aware, at least, of what U.S. officials say is their reason for attacking Baghdad. "Even if our President Saddam Hussein is the biggest tyrant in the world, as they say," said Falah Hassan, 51, owner of a small kabob restaurant that has managed to stay open, "we would not want to replace him." |
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