IRAQ: Sleepless in Baghdad

I had finished my work at the office and left for home because I knew the fighting could start at any moment in my neighborhood between the rival Shiite armed groups.

I stopped on my way at a computer repair shop to pick up my PC. When I reached my neighborhood, it was 7:30 pm. The streets were empty with the exception of a few motorcycles.  I spotted some Mahdi Army fighters on foot.

They were just kids. Some of them clustered in the alleys. They did not pay attention to me and they kept chatting. I put my computer on the ground and rested.

Finally, I reached home and my lovely 6-year-old boy greeted me, screaming, “Papa is here.” He opened the door. He asked me about my computer. I talked to him awhile and asked him if he ate his dinner. He answered yes. Then I put him to bed. He usually goes to sleep at 7 pm. I placed his doll beside him, lit his oil lamp and kissed him goodnight.

I watched TV until our block’s generator shut off at midnight.

The sound of Kalashnikovs awoke me a few hours later. I thought, "Oh no here it is. The fight has started."

This time, the shooting was close to our house. I raced to my son’s room before the shooting frightened him. He was covering his ears and cowering in bed. I started our house’s generator so he could watch TV. " I hate the terrorists,” he said. “I hope they die."

I held him close to my chest trying to calm him. I told him it was nothing; the gunshots were from a wedding party. The fight continued for another hour, but the gunmen had moved farther away.

When my child woke up in the morning, he covered his ears, screamed and ran away inside our house.

— A Times staff reporter in Baghdad

Photo: As Iraqis scramble for safety in a Baghdad commercial district, a boy crouches behind a U.S. soldier to avoid gunfire that broke out moments after a suicide car bombing last year. Earlier, hostage-taking gunmen battled security forces several blocks away. Credit: Khalid Mohammed / AP