I cant believe my eyes...

Well yesterday was one hell of a day. We started out the day before when we headed out to go pull overwatch over that shitty area Im always talking about. Pretty uneventful because my squad stayed back to guard the trucks, while the dismounts set in. Not that Im complaining tho because overwatch usually involves a tall building and a lot of stairs, and with all the equipment that we have on us, we have to weight in the neighborhood of 50-60 extra lbs. But yeah, I ended up just sleeping in the truck all night, which sucked because I could not get comfortable for the life of me and mesquitoes were chowing down on me like I was some full course meal!!

Well the next morning we went out and did a little dismounted patrol around the area we were staying in. Nothing exciting. Just a lot of walking and not really anything to show for it. When we got back we got a call to head out to the towers that we just built in the bad area. Apparently the IA (Iraqi Army) took a couple days to come occupy them. In that time they had blown the tall tower to the ground, and had placed a 155mm artillery shell IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in the other tower and we were to secure the area for EOD to come in and blow it.

We ended up pulling security in the EXACT same area where I had the gernade thrown at me. OK, a little unsetteling but what can you do. Hopefully if it happens again we can shoot the bastard this time. Well not even 30 mins into sitting there all of a sudden we hear a loud explosion behind us and see a dirt cloud coming from the IA check point about 200m back from our position. They then come under small arms fire and engage them for about 20 mins until things settle back down. Again, no US troops involved. Nothing else ended up happening while we were out there, which is good. Once EOD had successfully placed a charge on the IED, we made sure and had our video recorders out and got an awesome video of the explosion. They set it off inside the other tower, and amazingly the tower is still standing.

After that we headed back to base for a quick lunch stop and to pick up our CO to go check some markets with us. On our way out, we got a call of an explosion in one of the markets in our area and they believed it was a car bomb. Before we were even somewhat close, we could see the black smoke billowing in the sky. This definatly was not going to be good. As we got closer and closer it became obvious how big this was going to be. Finally we approached the street that the blast was on and all of a sudden I no longer felt like I was living my life. I honestly felt like I was watching a movie. Hoards of people were walking away from the area, some hurt, some shook up. We then began to see the emergency vechicles flying in and out of that street. Even average civilians with flatbed trucks were helping. We'd see them fly by with 20 people on the back, some screaming, some helping the wounded who were lying on the bed. We were about 1/4 mile away when the street became too crowded to drive down and us dismounts hopped out and headed down on foot.

It was utter choas down there the closer we got. I honestly could not believe my eyes. It was surreal. People were being helped away from "ground zero", some of them covered in blood and wounds. Windows hundreads of meters away were shattered; glass scattered on the ground. The closer we got, we began to see the damage from the blast. Cars 100-200 meters away were damaged by flying debree. Windows shattered, hoods bent in, blood on the paintjobs. The streets were soaked in the foam/water mix used to put the fires out, which were still going stong when we arrived. The closer we got, to more tainted the water became with an aweful red. I could only imagine what it was going to look like the closer I got. We ended up looping around to the west end of the blast site and we were probably about 25-30 meters away from where the vechicle had exploded. The ground was charred and black, and every vechicle in that area was a chared mangled metal mess. People were rushing in, some trying to put out the fire, others to rescue others, and even more simply recovering bodies.

The crowds in the area had to be in the hundreads if not thousands. Some of them had been wounded themselves in the blast. Many of them carried expressions of sorrow on they're faces. Some had anger, and even more wore expressions of confussion. They all had something to say to me as I passed, and although I do not speak their language, I knew exactly what they were saying. 'How could you let this happen? Do something about this!' but there was nothing I could do. I was helpless to do anything, yet people continued to plead with me. While sitting there at ground zero, I personally saw about 10 charred dead bodies pulled from the mangled charred car frames. It was the worst sight I've ever seen in my life. Evertime someone would come pushing a body, or 2 or 3 on a wooden cart, away from the scene, everyone in the crowd would all begin yelling 'Allah Akbar' or God is Great. Over and over with some other phrases. They would load the bodies up on a vechicle with many helpers on back and they would begin to chant as the vechicle sped away sirens blaring!

All of it just did not seem real. I could not believe what I was experiencing. It was truely something from a movie, yet I was there, living it, experiencing it in its full senses and emotions. I just still cannot believe what I saw. I dont think I will ever see something so horrible in my life as what I saw that day. And I truely pray that I never have to see anything like that, ever again. That one event has angered me here, more than anything else. All this carnage and destruction in the name of God. Allah. Where in the hell is God's work in all of this. It makes no sense and these people are crazy fanatics. I just dont understand it. Talking it over with my buddies, I estimated from the number of bodies I personally saw, and by the devistation I saw that there had to of been at least 50 killed. I was utterly shocked to hear the real numbers. Here's a news article on that blast. Im not sure how accurate the numbers still are because the death and injured toll seems to continue to rise with every hour. Truely a horrible and horrific day.

-----

Death toll from blast in Baghdad's Sadriya 140-police
18 Apr 2007 19:35:58 GMT18 Apr 2007 19:35:58 GMT
Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, April 18 (Reuters) - The death toll from a car bomb in Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood of Sadriya on Wednesday rose to 140, with 150 wounded, police said.

It was the deadliest single insurgent bomb attack in the capital since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
-----

That is truely all there is to say, and thats all the article says. The intersection at the top, slightly right of the picture is where I was standing behind one of the pillars on the right building. I just truely cannot believe how devistating this was.