Sunday, May 21, 2006

One Minute Later...

This past Thursday, my husband's cousin/neighbor/close friend drove over to the barbershop he and my husband are regulars at, in the Jami'a district. He parked his car and crossed the street. Just before he entered the store, and as he was turning towards something, a roadside bomb hidden in the median went off. Apparently, it was targeting a National Guard envoy driving by.
The barber shop cousin 'A' was heading into had its windows blown out, and its ceiling caved in. Bystanders were injured, and one man was killed. In the process, cousin A's driver's side window was shattered. Thankfully, he wasn't in the car at the time. He got away with one cut on his arm, but one of his friend's had his face all swollen from the shards of glass which had entered it. And many others were more seriously injured.
SubhanaAllah, that's the way things happen here, and everywhere else for that matter. You go on with your daily life, realizing that something might happen at any moment, and hoping that you are one minute earlier or one minute later.

NOTE: The National Guard (haras watani) are constantly under attack here in Baghdad, along with the Iraqi police and the American forces. The problem is, they set up patrols/checkpoints in areas that are close to residences, and when they get attacked (pretty often in Jami'a), they start firing their guns like crazy, without any concern for where their ammo lands. Numerous home/car windows have been blown out in this way, and needless to say, people have been injured. As I've mentioned before, in Jami'a district, it's a neverending cycle, where the insurgency attacks the Iraqi forces, so they move in and set up checkpoints and shoot around like crazy, and the insurgency continues attacking them in these residential/business areas. People stop coming to these areas, businesses start closing down, residents start moving out, and one more neighborhood has been closed down.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow. subhanallah. khudi balik min nafsik ya fatima :|

Anonymous said...

Fatima, I would like to interview you for a US Progressive Radio Talk show, would you be interested?
please email at bruce@bruceburch.com

f.d.rahman said...

poor cousin, I talked to khalei and ammu and they told me he got hurt, but I didn't know the full content of the story, they only told me that a car exploded near him and he hurt his arm.

Isn't this the second time his car window got blown out? I think the boys are going to have to cut their hair at home or find a new barber in a new district..

Karin said...

GOD ALMIGHTY ... what a life!! Once leaving the house, one never knows if he/she will make it back alive - what a horror!! I feel so helpless - I'd LOVE to do something to close this box of Pandora fast, very fast ... but I don't know how. Don't people know in the US what's REALLY going on? I can't believe they would keep silent the way they (mostly) do till know!! I've lived there a few years - they are passionate good people ... my GOD guys ... WAKE UP!!!!!!!

Fatima said...

F.D.: Yah, it is the second time! But the first time was from a gunfight on our street.
Karin: Thanks so much for all your words. At this point, it's going to take a few good years for things to settle down.

Riot Starter said...

I used to live near there till a couple years ago...
Take better care of yourselves, folks. :)