- BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Little
remains
of the once-popular Green Zone Cafe except overturned tables, body parts,
shattered glass and shreds of plastic sheeting -- reminders of Thursday's
deadly attacks inside Baghdad's most heavily secured area.
-
- A day after twin bombings at the cafe and an open market
inside the Green Zone - home to U.S. officials and the Iraqi government
- killed six people and injured another 20, soldiers in a Humvee guarded
the razor-wire encircled bomb site.
-
- The dead included three Americans security contractors.
A fourth American was missing and presumed dead, according to the State
Department. Two Iraqis were also killed, including one believed to be a
suicide bomber.
-
- The U.S. military said the explosives were
"hand-carried"
inside the area - a warning sign of the vulnerability at the heart of the
U.S.-Iraqi leadership. Last week, a bomb had been found in front of the
Green Zone cafe but it was defused.
-
- "When you're in a fixed site like this (Green Zone),
they're going to get you. You can't run away," said an Army sergeant
surveying the site who requested anonymity. "We don't know how long
it took them to build (the bomb) or how. Maybe there are more."
-
- Much of the explosion's blast was directed downward,
he said, pointing to a three by three foot wide hole created by the blast.
The cafe's plastic walls probably kept the casualty toll down, he
said.
-
- "If this had been a stone structure, probably no
one would have lived," he said.
-
- Flies swarmed on the grisly remains, including a piece
of what appeared to be a human skull, still lying at the cafe.
-
- At the Ibn Sina hospital inside the Green Zone, American
officials said three victims had been transferred to another medical
facility
in Iraq, but that five remained in intensive care.
-
- One of the patients, identified as an American civilian
contractor, could be seen in the intensive care unit after brain surgery
to repair injuries from the explosion. The exact number of wounded in the
blast still in the hospital wasn't immediately available.
-
- Medical staff were treating victims for broken limbs,
burns, shrapnel wounds and other wounds.
-
- "We filled up this whole damn place. We had wounded
in the hallways," said Lt. Col. Greg Kidwell, of the Armyís
31st Combat Support Hospital, and chief nurse of the emergency room.
-
- "There were lots of body parts; they found pieces
on the roofs nearby," said the 49-year old from Clarksville,
Tennessee.
-
- Recovering in one room was Michael Fitzpatrick, a British
civilian contractor, who had his back and head riddled with small shrapnel
wounds, burns on his legs and arms.
-
- "I was sitting in the Green Zone Cafe, having a
coffee. Then there was this incredible explosion and I was somersaulting
in the air," said the 32-year old from Leyland, England.
-
- "I thought I was dead. But I got up and I was on
fire, but I put out the flames. Next to me there was a woman on fire. I
told her that Jesus loved her and help was on the way. When some soldiers
came in with a blanket for her, I got up and walked to the
hospital."
-
- The former 10-year veteran of the French Foreign Legion
said he feels grateful to have survived the blast and plans to return to
work.
-
- "I'm burnt all over. I was in the middle of a giant
fireball and I'm alive," he said from his hospital bed. "I'm
so happy to be alive. I just want to go home and go fishing."
-
- Despite his injuries, Fitzpatrick remained positive:
"When I heal up, I'm coming back out. This hasn't put me off. My best
friend died fighting this war and I'm not going to let him down.
Weíre
winning this war and I don't want anyone in America to give
up."
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- Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved.
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- http://www.armytimes.com/
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