April 8, 2003	Tuesday	Safar 5, 1424

BAGHDAD, April 7: At least nine civilians were killed when a missile crashed into a residential neighborhood in central Baghdad on Monday.

The missile left a 10-metre deep large crater and destroyed three houses off Ramadan 14th, a main commercial artery in the Al Mansur area, they said.

Nine people were found dead, and neighbors and relief workers were searching through the rubble of the collapsed buildings for a number of missing people.

Shattered glass and concrete covered the sidewalk, notably in front of the Al Sa’ah restaurant, where President Saddam Hussein made a defiant public appearance on Friday.

Among those killed in the residential suburb, which also houses military offices, was a baby which was hit by glass shards and shrapnel. Four people were also wounded and four other buildings were also badly damaged.

A security guard said people were buried under the rubble. He said one missile gouged a crater 10 metres deep and 15 metres wide in the road.

Qatar-based al-Jazeera television showed footage of apartment blocks razed to the ground in the afternoon strike. A bulldozer was seen lifting concrete blocks and twisted steel support rods.

FIERCE CLASH: Fighting was also raging in the area of Baghdad’s landmark Al Rashid hotel, which has been cordoned off by Iraqi fighters, hours after a US raid on the nearby presidential palace.

Iraqi paramilitary fighters were seen firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades from different angles toward the area of the Al Rashid, they said.

It was not clear who was returning fire, as the entire neighborhood has been cordoned off by Iraqi forces since the lightning raid in the morning by US forces on the Republican Palace compound in central Baghdad.

Two abandoned police cars damaged by shelling were seen on the corner of a road leading to the hotel.

A green civilian car was also damaged from shelling a few meters (yards) away, at the entrance of the al-Alawi bus station which has been empty since the morning amid US forces’ onslaught.

URBAN FIGHTBACK: Iraqi snipers crouched behind bridges and artillery fire rang out from almost every direction on Monday as Iraqi forces defended Baghdad against US troops.

The urban warfare that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein promised the invading forces finally began as dozens of US tanks rumbled into the city of five million people and entered two presidential compounds on the west bank of the Tigris.

“Iraqi forces are blocking streets all over town and their artillery is in action,” Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul said. “The Iraqis are definitely fighting back.”

The white dust of mortar mingled with a sandstorm that cloaked the city on Monday morning obstructing visibility as the thud of artillery and mortar bombs reverberated across the capital, especially toward the west and south.

Artillery shells, apparently Iraqi, crashed into the presidential compound on the west bank of the Tigris river, where American tanks took up positions early on Monday.

A photographer saw other shells, apparently American, landing in the gardens of the nearby Al-Rashid Hotel and information ministry.

Almost the only people walking the streets were Iraqi soldiers in full combat gear or fighters in civilian clothes.

Residents hid indoors to escape the crackling automatic fire and exploding shells. State television showed old footage of Saddam and played patriotic songs.—Reuters / AFP