Perspective: Haifa Street gets preview of new push

ABU HAMED received a grim foretaste of the increased violence that many Iraqis fear was heralded by President George W Bush’s announcement last week of a new drive to pacify Baghdad.

The fighting has seen him trapped with two blind daughters in one room in the city centre since Wednesday morning, without water or electricity and with nothing to eat but beans. Hamed, a 55-year-old retired civil servant, is now growing desperate.

“Is this the new paradise that the Americans said they would give us when they invaded our country?” he asked. “When is this nightmare going to end?” The fighting in Haifa Street, one of the oldest parts of the city, was more than just another day’s violence in Baghdad.

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