Hundreds of Families Flee Battered Baghdad

Agence France Presse, Al-Jazeerah, 9 April 2003

BAGHDAD, 9 April 2003’Hundreds of families fled Baghdad to safer shores yesterday as the battered capital came under intensive US bombing and US forces battled Iraqi fighters for control of the city. Residents headed mainly toward the east of the country on the 20th day of the war that claimed casualties among foreign journalists covering the conflict from Baghdad.

AFP correspondents saw cars, trucks and minibuses driving in the direction of the northern Ash-Shaab district opening onto a highway leading east to Diyala, around 100 kilometers from Baghdad. The vehicles were stacked with mattresses, kitchen utensils, beds and food. Women and children could be seen in the cars fleeing intense bombing of the capital.

In the Ash-Shaab (people—s) district, where three people were killed by the US-British bombing Monday, Jabbar Keleish, his wife, their 10 children and daughter-in-law got into three cars for a drive to the perceived safety of Ghalbiyah to the northwest. We—d better go after the bombing, said Keleish, 49. A considerable number of residents appeared to be leaving the district, located near a strategic spot. I—m closing the house and leaving with my family for a safer place. I will come back every now and then to see if something happened, said Ali Rishek, 53, before driving away with his wife and their three children.

The exodus got under way as US warplanes swooped down on President Saddam Hussein—s Republican Palace and tanks seized a key bridge over the Tigris. The media increasingly came under fire in the urban fighting, with a correspondent for the Arabic satellite television Al-Jazeera killed and the hotel housing most foreign journalists hit, wounding at least five people.

Two US Abrams tanks rolled out of the northern entrance of the presidential palace compound, which US forces raided the day before, and took up position on the adjacent Al-Jumhuriya (republic) bridge. That sparked the first exchange of fire between US forces and Iraqis holed up on the east bank of the Tigris. The roads were also littered with burned-out Iraqi tanks and artillery. Trucks, buses and civilian cars had also been destroyed. De-miners went to work disarming abandoned Iraqi tanks. Across the sky, huge black plumes of smoke blanketed Baghdad—s suburbs while high-flying jets targeted the city and low-flying helicopters ferried supplies.

At least 14 civilians were killed when a bomb crashed in the residential Al-Mansur district of Baghdad on Monday, witnesses said. Information Minister Muhammad Said Al-Sahaf, however, vowed that Iraqis would not be bombed into submission. The Americans are in a state of hysteria. They imagine they can terrorize (people) by killing civilians, he said.

The final US Marines advance into Baghdad got caught up in a traffic jam yesterday as thousands of armored vehicles and Humvees poured into the capital for a showdown with Saddam Hussein—s troops. Along eastern routes into the city, convoys of amphibious assault vehicles, Abrams tanks, and armored personnel carriers struck logjams in the outer suburbs and on canal bridges.

Medic Tony Garcia, chief of a Shock Trauma Platoon, said the unanticipated rush hour had played havoc with access to, and the evacuation of, casualties wounded in overnight fighting. The massive amount of troops attempting to cross the bridges is slowing everything down, he said. We know of three US Marines and two reporters who were killed and their bodies could not be retrieved because of the logjam. And according to intelligence reports there were many casualties among the Iraqi regular army, troops who were dressed as Iraqi civilians, and we can—t get to them either.

Garcia said further reports indicated that there were hundreds of dead along the route out of Baghdad between the center of the city and the logjams. This could easily take a day to clear, Garcia said. Many of the vehicles in the convoy bore personalized markings. The driver of one Humvee had mounted a bust of Saddam Hussein on his roof. Along major highways into the capital troops were relaxed. Many slept, made coffee or dined on a rationed military meal.

A senior commander, who declined to be named, said the advance on Baghdad would be slow and deliberate with a focus on minimum casualties for US troops.