Fabled Arab city prepares for yet another war

PICK-UP trucks mounted with machine guns roam Baghdad streets. Dark grey clouds of smoke from burning fuel darken the sky.

The nights resound with fearsome explosions.

With US forces closing in on the Iraqi capital, this ancient city fabled in Arab history is preparing for another war. Menacing-looking men from the security forces and the feared Ba’ath Party militia patrol in pick-ups with machine guns bolted to the beds. Travellers see troops setting up mortar positions to the south of the city.

Inside the city of five million people, workmen pile up sandbags around government buildings and strategic locations as fighting positions.

Sunday afternoon, several hundred people, including children, gathered to watch scores of police and security men fire Kalashnikovs at reeds and the base of a bridge as they searched for what they believed to be a downed coalition pilot on the west bank of the Tigris River. The policemen later set the reeds ablaze. The search resumed on Sunday night on the east bank of the Tigris. Bystanders swapped theories about where the pilot could hide.

The Pentagon said there were no reports of coalition aircraft being shot down or a missing pilot.

Contributing to the nervousness over the prospect of a ground war in Baghdad, Iraqi newspapers have started publishing photos of damaged houses in the southern city of Basra they said were targeted by allied forces.

The ministry also has given foreign news organisations photos of decapitated bodies and severed heads it said belong to victims of allied bombings.

Iraqi television showed footage of captured American soldiers. It also showed a video clip of what looked like a makeshift morgue in which several corpses the announcer said belonged to American soldiers were strewn on the floor. A smiling Iraqi worker held up the head of one body for the benefit of the camera. The footage drew cheers from some Iraqis who watched it in coffee shops.

Announcers and news readers on the two Iraqi television stations have begun to wear olive-green military uniforms as they introduce a series of patriotic songs, archival footage of Saddam Hussein and old films with a patriotic message.

News of war protests around the world, together with condemnations of the US led attack on Iraq, have dominated the front pages of Iraqi newspapers, along with news of the Iraqi leader’s meetings and the daily military communique.