/ 4 April 2003

In an instant we were plunged into endless night

There was no audible explosion, no discernible change in the early evening bombardments, but in an instant, an entire city of 5 million people was plunged into an awful, endless night.

The row of orange lights along the western bank of the Tigris, marking the perimeters of Saddam Hussein’s official domain, lingered a few moments after that initial shock to Baghdad’s electricity grid, which arrived at about 8pm.

They soon died, encasing the city in a darkness relieved only by the headlights of passing cars.

A few moments later came the thrum of generators, and small squares of weak light appeared at a few distant windows.

But the city was silent. After the initial, noiseless attack on the electricity stations, the bombardments ceased. The dogs, which have bayed their way through the past 15 nights of bombing, slept.

And so a city which spent yesterday warding off the notion of an American onslaught went to bed with the realisation that the attack had arrived.

Just a few kilometres beyond Ziad Tariq’s home on the southern edges of the city, where urban chaos gives way to the sleepy plains of the Tigris river, the world’s mightiest army was mustering for battle.

Tariq was engaged in his own preparations. He loaded an assault rifle into his red Toyota and set off for the tailors to mend a rip in his shoulder holster.

He pulled out a shiny Remington pistol and traced the US manufacturer’s stamp with his finger. ”They made it, and I will kill them with it,” he said. ”They will never reach Baghdad.”

But, as Tariq well knows, the US forces are at least within easy distance of his neighbourhood, which straddles the likely route for the US forces as they move from the south.

In the suburbs of Beyaa and Daura yesterday, the last turn-off before the open road, a few more sandbag pillboxes appeared on the main highway towards the south.

A couple of ambulances carried away the wounded from the morning bombardments. Dozens of militia from the Ba’ath party were on the streets. Like Tariq, a high number of civilian men carried guns.

However, none of the signs of mobilisation appeared to live up to expectations of an epic battle. They did not even add up to an attempt to offer a defence of the suburbs.

But Iraqis also know that soldiers have shied away from entering towns — a point hammered home by Iraqi officials. – Guardian Unlimited Â