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Living on the edge

AFP, Baghdad
Smoke was still rising from the rubble of what was the Al-Salhiya communications centre yesterday, where a sign bore the message: "Dear citizen: in case of telephone problems, please call the complaints office."
Ahmad Shakar, a neighbour of the communications node in the central Al-Aadhamiya district, is learning to adjust to the new realities of wartime Baghdad, where the line between a telephone exchange and a military target can seem as blurry as the blackened sky over the capital.
Shakar just moved his 24-member family to an underground shelter after coalition missiles destroyed his house while pummelling Baghdad's city centre.
"But how can we avoid living next to such places? These are civilian services sites that are located in all residential neighbourhoods, like everywhere else in the world," he said.
At least two communications centres were struck with about seven missiles on the dawn of the 11th day of massive US-British strikes on the capital since the launch of war against President Saddam Hussein's regime.
"The al-Aadhamiya telephone centre was hit two days ago, so we got scared and decided to sleep in the shelter at the end of the road," said Shakar, a 56-year-old former employee of the industry ministry.
"But now that our home is totally destroyed, we are not just sleeping at the shelter, we have actually moved there. It will be our home until we rebuild ours," he said.
Baghdad residents, acquainted with US-led raids against infrastructure and civilian services sites from the 1991 Gulf war and the 1998 bombing campaign, have been expecting massive bombardment of such targets and nearby "collateral damage": their homes. Their telephone lines have also been cut off.
"The American bombings are usually very accurate," said Anis Abdallah, a barber who still lives on the other side of the road where he braves daytime bombings to open his shop every day.
"But you never know. Look at all these homes around the centre that are destroyed," said Abdallah, before explaining to his nine-year-old daughter Tiba that "America is the one that destroyed our telephones and our country."
A hundred metres down the road from the communications centre, a gigantic crater filled with water from gutted pipes replaced what used to be three small houses and a shoe shop.
There were no casualties since the communications centre and
nearby homes and shops were all deserted.
But around midday on Sunday, an additional coalition missile struck the Al-Aadhamiya communications centre again as workers were clearing rubble and journalists were filming after the overnight strikes.
A 50-year-old man was wounded and taken by ambulance to hospital. Another person was treated for shock.
Minutes before the mid-day strike, four busloads of journalists were on a tour organised by the information ministry of sites bombed during the night.
In front of a destroyed home next door to the communications centre, a veiled woman was sitting silently on a swing, carrying a sleeping baby.
"Our children did not sleep tonight because of the bombing, and we were in a small room in the house when the centre was bombed. We escaped miraculously," said Zeinab Fouad al-Malki, 40.
Across the street from the Al-Salhiya communications centre, stands a rectangular building behind a large fence. A sign reads: "Saddam Centre for Cardiac Surgery."
The medical centre suffered a few hefty knocks overnight but there were no injuries as it had recently been only open for outpatients for safety reasons.
Two workers in blue overalls were standing by the rubble at the destroyed communications centre, looking at the scene with arms crossed and eyes fixed on the mangled switchboards.
"We came to help, we work at a similar communications centre in the north of the capital," said one of them. "Ours has not been
bombed," interrupted the other, before adding "yet."