Sundays Under Fire
Artillery in Baghdad -- Listening to the sounds of shelling in a city at war.
By Omar Fadhil
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This ‚Üí[ U.S. launches artillery barrage in Baghdad ] explains what those loud sounds we heard this morning were except that what we heard in northern Baghdad were the sounds of the shells being fired not exploding.
It’s interesting how huge the difference between the two sounds is. I remember the sound of outgoing artillery from the days March 2003. At that time, Saddam’s Iraqi army deployed artillery units inside residential neighborhoods to “protect” them with civilian homes. In my neighborhood our unwelcome guest was a 155mm howitzer. We called it the “Austrian” in reference to some artillery pieces Saddam had purchased from Austria.
That howitzer was less than half a mile from our home. Every time it went off our doors shook and our windows made a sound as if they were about to shatter. On the other hand when the shell itself detonates -as in many of the countless IEDs I’ve heard and sometimes seen- the sound from a similar distance is by far less aggressive.
If this morning’s blasts have an explanation last night’s explosions remain of unknown origin and nature. Last night there were more than two dozen explosions that could be heard from somewhere around the city. Some sounded like artillery shelling, others like air strikes. There’s still no word anywhere about what they actually were.
During the last couple of days two significant operations were conducted by Iraqi and American forces. There’s some conflict in the reports that there might be a third significant operation that is being confused with one of the other two.
On Friday night, soldiers from the 5th brigade 6th division of the Iraqi army captured 75 militants and confiscated their weapons in al-Yarmouk district in western Baghdad. Qasim Ata the spokesman of Baghdad operations said the militants were found hiding in a large container loaded on a truck. It’s not clear what the militants’ destination or plans were.
In the second operation 72 suspected terrorists were captured in raids in Samrra and Anbar. Bomb-making material was discovered too.
The details of the third operation are yet to be confirmed but if the report of al-Hurra is true then this one is the most significant of the three. Al-Hurra said that the artillery barrage was followed by raids by joint Iraqi-American forces on militants’ positions in Albu Eitha and around Dora and reported that the overall operation left 70 militants killed.
Meanwhile, something small in size, big in meaning is brewing in Adhamiya. Yesterday I was asked by our friend Bill Roggio (whose reporting I admire and recommend) whether I thought the Sunni in Baghdad would follow the example of the Awakening Council of Anbar. That council is made up of Sunni tribes that have turned against al-Qaeda and are now fighting a fierce war against them side by side with government forces.
I couldn’t answer that question. The difference in social structures between tribal Ramadi and urban Baghdad alters everything. The tribal structure allows for safe communication among the members of the same tribe or clan. They most often live in the same geographic area and tend to consider themselves “cousins”. In Baghdad this doesn’t exist, making it difficult to safely spread the word among many people.
Even so, it seems that the question might have an answer now, and a positive one.
Al-Sabah reported today that “some community leaders in Adhamiya are working on forming a salvation council for their own district they will be calling The Adhamiya Awakening. Sources close to the leaders said they (the leaders) have managed to win the support of some hundred people who agree with the new position. The sources asserted that the goal of the Awakening is to rid Adhamiya of the terrorists.”
Last but not least I’d like you to read this story “Iraqi artists find canvas in the cruel concrete of war”. Those brave artists are risking their lives to simply offer fellow Baghdadis a glimmer of hope, something beautiful to look at and remember that not everything about their life is dark. Remember that those artists are standing on both sides of Blast Walls. It’s this kind of spirit that helps me and other Baghdadis remain hopeful.
“Wild horses couldn’t drag me away. / Wild, wild horses. We’ll ride them some day.”
Omar Fadhil is PJM’s Baghdad editor; his own blog is Iraq The Model
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8 Comments
the nailgun:Well Omar you are one up on the West in one regard. Your artists are genuinely courageous and know who the real enemy are.
Keep on Surgin’
Apr 29, 2007 - 4:59 pm Bill:Omar,
So you have become a connoisseur of things that would give most of permanent nightmares: spent shells, artillery blasts, etc. All of us owe you a lot, esp. here in the US, and I believe that in Nov. of ‘08 we’ll be able to give you the kind of official support you’ve been looking for ever since the cut-and-run Democrats took over Congress. It’s only a matter of time before their craven and treasonous cowardice disgusts the American people. Those who know the score know that your fight is our fight. God bless you and the Iraqi people.
All the best,
Bill
Apr 29, 2007 - 8:14 pm bour3:Love the painting of horses.
Seems strange though, I was under the impression Islam forbids representational art.
Apr 29, 2007 - 10:02 pm Matty J:bour3,
Not true. The JIHADI’S forbid it, but Baghdad is very secular, very modern. You can even buy representations of Mohammed in some shops. The Qur’an doesn’t forbid art, except for some interpretations along the lines of “thou shalt not worship graven images” or words to that effect.
Apr 29, 2007 - 10:31 pm M. Simon:Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. - John F. Kennedy
I Support Democracy In Iraq
or if you are interested in a more animated version:
I Support Democracy In Iraq - The Animation
Apr 30, 2007 - 7:30 am Brian H:M. Simon;
May 1, 2007 - 5:27 am SisterRosetta:Your links, animated and otherwise, are moribund.
Sit down, I think I love you
Omar, why are the democrats doing this?
I’ll tell you exactly why. They don’t care.
Black churches in America will jump up and down every Sunday about freedom. But don’t believe them. They don’t really mean it. They only care about freedom for themselves. They don’t care about the Blacks in Sudan who are being enslaved. If they did, they wouldn’t be trying to stop George W. Bush at every turn. The only reason little to nothing is being done in Darfur is because the only superpower in the world has been shackled almost beyond repair.
Oh, and don’t believe the leadership of the gay/lesbian community in America either. Again, they only care about the progress of their own agenda here in America. They don’t care about the young Iranian gay men being put to death by the mullahs. They can’t even let the thought of that intrude upon the relative safety they have here at home. God forbid.
And the feminists here in America. What a joke?! What feminists? I didn’t hear their outcry when young Iranian women were being hung or stoned to death for adultery. Or when the Russian or Chinese governments repatriate women and their children to torture or worse in Iranian and North Korean gulags.
And where is the outcry against the genital mutilation of little girls or the attempted export of this barbarism to Western cultures?
There are a few small voices in America trying to get this message out. But the major media oulets in this country are so diametrically opposed to George W. Bush and his mission that they stifle any coverage that might awaken the American people to what they are really up against.
Recently, some of us have witnessed the screams of an Iranian woman resisting arrest, crying for help as she was being pushed into the back seat of a police car. And we laughed in amusement at the warnings being given to Iranian barbers about Western style haicuts for men or about the plucking of eyebrows.
But believe me there are much more sinister and evil acts being perpretrated in Iraq and Iran and in North Korea. And probably elsewhere too.
Do you honestly think things would be any different if the United Nations (i.e. the United States) intervened in Darfur? The terrorists would flock to Sudan just as they have to Iraq.
So, most of the democrats in the United States stopped believing what they were saying a long time ago. And at the top of their agenda has been the delegitimization of George W. Bush so that they could start winning elections again.
Believe me, Omar. They don’t care about you or the Iraqi people or the oppressed anywhere in the world.
So we have to stop them.
A Lieberman-Loving Democrat
Sister Rosetta
May 1, 2007 - 2:52 pm Rancher:Yesterday on Albuquerque’s Jim Villanucci radio show senior New Mexican Republican Senator Pete Domenici basically said that things had better be improved in Iraq by September or a timetable would be imposed. Which imposes a timetable now. You’re on the clock Omar. September.
May 2, 2007 - 10:49 am