CPTnet
December 31, 2003
IRAQ: Explosion in Baghdad near CPT apartment

   A grenade exploded on Karrada St. in Baghdad, Tuesday, Dec. 30, at
8:00am, two blocks from the CPT Iraq apartment, killing one Iraqi man and
wounding two others.

   After hearing the blast, three CPTers went to the scene, where people in
the crowd told them that a remote detonated grenade had exploded in the
middle of the street as a US military convoy passed by. According to
witnesses, the blast broke windows in a humvee and wounded an Iraqi
interpreted for the US military, but no Americans were injured. It also
injured an Iraqi man who was selling cigarettes on the
street.

   Team members saw the dead man's body lying on the edge of the street,
covered with a large piece of cardboard and watched as Iraqi men put the
body in a simple wooden coffin. The men carried the coffin into the nearby
mosque, before taking it away in a pick-up truck. Broken glass from shop
windows littered the street and sidewalks along both sides of the street.
People standing around in the crowdexpressed grief and anger directed at
both soldiers and those who detonated the
bomb.

Iraqi policemen and US soldiers came to the scene to block off the street
and try to keep order in the crowd. Periodically US soldiers yelled out to
the people in English, "Get out of here!" and "Go away!" but did not impose
any consequences on the people who remained.

   One man, a local blacksmith who expressed anger and grief, told CPTers
that Iraqis do not hate Americans. They just don't want the soldiers here
occupying their country. "Americans wouldnt like that either," he added.