by TChris

What is life in occupied Baghdad really like? One journalist describes a city of relentless violence, much of it unseen by reporters who fear to leave their hotels at night.

Explosions from bombs, rocket propelled grenades and artillery as well as guns firing can be heard all day and night, but their locations are usually impossible to determine, even if you are foolish enough to search for them after dark, when gangs and wild dogs own the streets. There are systematic assassinations of policemen, translators, local officials, and anybody associated with the occupiers. ... Nobody in the US (and certainly nobody in Iraq) even cares much about the American soldiers dying daily, as long as the numbers on any given day are low. In the Sunni neighborhood of Aadhamiya in Baghdad there are nightly RPG and mortar attacks on the US base, and the men on the street erupt in cheers and whistles at the sounds.

Freelance journalist Nir Rosen offers a compelling look at a country torn apart by internal strife, united only by its hatred of occupation. One cause of suspicion and hostility, rarely reported in mainstream media: "over ten thousand Iraqi men are being held prisoner, and most of them are innocent."