Cloudy Day in Baghdad

Today is the last day in April. After days of sand storms, dust and very heavy clashes, Dust never stopped for even an hour, dusting everything, streets, building and every piece in the house, every aspect of our lives including our lungs. Including today, I often woke up in the down with breathing difficulties. A rumor spread saying the dust will last the whole next month due to sand storms in the deserts of Saudi Arabia. Plus the growing violence between shi'it militia and Iraqi and American forces that never stopped, plus the violence inside the city itself. It has been a very rough week on Iraq and Baghdad specifically, plus some violence in other cities which claimed hundred of lives. One of my co-workers who live in Sadr city told me that a mortar fell near his house aimed on an American tank which left few minutes before the felling of the shell. He also said that on of his relatives told that her house been stroke by a rocket killing the tem people lived in including her husband, his brothers, their wives, her in-law and a child. No survivors.

In the last few days we also had our share of violence. For example two days ago, a truck stopped on the bridge of the highway near my house and offloaded it's load of rockets with no aim, launched randomly to hit the streets, residence buildings and one landed in front of the pharmacy my mother owns. The past few days the voices of clashes never ceased. Last night we had a mortar shower on of them landed few yards from my house. The voices is very very load. Mixed up with the voices of thunders, the rage of nature, And the dust is spreading a desert colored cover on our lives.

News about the international Zone (IZ) had a big share of mortar shower.

Today is cloudy; some rain fell while I was on my way to work. Now im looking at Baghdad from the window of my office, and here it is, dust again plus voices of bombings. Still unknown, when will that end, and how.

April 30, 2009