A Block in Baghdad Mourns Its Own

Abdul Qader recalled that he first heard gunfire rising from buildings behind the American convoy. "If the shooting was close, we would have gone inside," he said. Two seconds later, he said, the U.S. troops were shooting in his direction. "The Americans don't shoot randomly if they were not provoked," he added.

Other witnesses said there was no provocation. Ahmed Abdul Salaam, 20, the owner of the orange-gated shop, said he was cooking falafel for five young men, including Abbas Fadhil. They noticed the U.S. troops, but thought nothing of it, since troops patrol the area daily.

Zafraniya, in southeastern Baghdad, is a stronghold of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. Over the past week, the militiamen, whose ranks include many young, unemployed men, had been battling U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces in many eastern Baghdad enclaves. The clashes were sparked by a government offensive against Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra.

"Suddenly the Americans started shooting," Abdul Salaam recalled. "I think they thought we were Mahdi Army fighters."

Fadhil, who had just bought some cigarettes, was shot in the head and collapsed. The other young men rushed into the shop and took cover. Abdul Salaam dragged Fadhil's body inside, he said. "Nobody exchanged fire with the Americans," he said.

One bullet pierced Tabarik's head and came out the other side, entering the chest of her grandfather. Abdul Qader, in his 60s, tried to pull his friend and the granddaughter inside the compound, but he didn't have the strength.

"The last words I heard him say: 'I got shot,' " Abdul Qader recalled. "I tried to rescue him. When I tried to pull him, I got shot in my leg."

Abdul Qader ran to his own house, where his sons stuffed cotton into his wounds to stop him from bleeding to death.

When Ghadeer Abbas heard the gunfire, he ran out of his house. He saw his daughter and his father on the ground. He grabbed her, while a neighbor tried to drag his father inside their compound. There was too much gunfire. Five minutes later, the shooting ended, Abbas said. Tabarik was unconscious, but there was still hope.

"She was barely breathing, but she was still alive," Abbas said.

His father was bleeding profusely from several gunshot wounds.

Abbas called the nearest hospital for an ambulance. With a curfew in effect, the ambulance driver was too afraid of the U.S. military to drive into the neighborhood.