Raids leave Baghdad a city of contrasts
By Howard Schneider
BAGHDAD: They were scattered and relatively inconspicuous, hard to identify except for such telltale signs as blasted windows, sagging roofs or burn marks. After three nights of US and British air strikes against the Iraqi capital, there were no smoking piles of rubble, collapsed bridges or severed highways. The city and its people continued to function quite normally.
But tucked away near highway overpasses or wedged behind apartments and office complexes was the evidence of the cruise missiles that came thundering in from planes and ships in the Persian Gulf: a series of government buildings, thought to be critical to the Iraqi regime, that appeared largely intact from the outside were very likely in tatters within.
En route to spots around the city, one caught an occasional glimpse - of a security complex, for example, struck by as many as three missiles near the UN headquarters outside Baghdad. The roof of one building had collapsed on to the top floor in one corner, while the walls of a second were charred and windowless.
The top floors of a military-industry office complex were also windowless, although little other damage was apparent from the small portion of the building that was visible from the road outside the al-Rasheed Hotel.
The extent of the damage caused by US and British missiles could not be described with any accuracy. Iraqi officials have not allowed journalists to tour any damaged structures and were providing only a partial list of targeted sites.
But diplomats with more freedom of movement around Baghdad said the air raids had created an eerie contrast between the unimpeded flow of daily life in the city and the heavy pounding of the past three nights. There has been no major disruption of electricity, water service or commerce, a state of affairs that to some here seemed hardly possible given the noise and seeming chaos of each night.
Outside the UN headquarters - where the windows had been taped carefully to prevent injuries from shattered glass - spent shells, apparently from Iraqi gunners, fell from the sky at midday.
"We are having an instance of anti-aircraft shells falling," a security guard said over a loudspeaker. "Please remain indoors."-