Resigned Baghdad struggles on

Resigned Baghdad struggles on

By Paul Wood BBC correspondent in Baghdad

The city of Baghdad is covered in a thick cake of mud and silt - the remains of the sandstorm that hit the city a few days ago.

Bombing has intensified as weather improves

Looking out of my window now I can see a thick black cloud of smoke on the horizon.

It's not smoke from a bomb, but an oil-filled trench which has been set ablaze as a rudimentary defensive device.

But all around me I can hear the constant thump-thump-thump of bombs and missiles falling every few seconds.

The Americans promised they would take advantage of the clearer skies, and they seem to be living up to that promise.

Last night some of the bombardments fell close to us, and the plate glass windows in the hotel rooms where we stay were shaken violently many times.

The closest one made the whole hotel shake back and forth.

Americans unpopular

The people of Baghdad are huddled in bomb shelters or the fortified spaces they made in their homes, just trying to get through it.

Baghdad has been bombarded before - in 1991 and 1998 - but nothing like this.

The bombing of shops has outraged Baghdad residents

The Americans may hope they will be welcomed as liberators, and that the Iraqi regime is not popular.

But it is the Americans who are not popular here.

It's a culmination of 12 years of crushing sanctions, two years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in which the United States has been seen as supporting the Israeli side, and because it's widely believed that the US has come to Iraq to steal its oil.

These are of course opinions found in any Arab capital in any Arab country anywhere in the Middle East.

But they are felt in Iraq just the same.

And this is the problem the Americans face.

If it was the Swedish army coming here, the reaction might be different.

Horrific photographs

The bombing in the Baghdad city market was another propaganda coup for the Iraqi regime.

I went to the scene and it was really quite terrible.

Some Baghdad residents try to continue with life as normal

There were two huge holes in the ground, cars and trees were still on fire, and body parts thrown everywhere.

These images were shown on Iraqi television, and printed in Iraqi newspapers.

On the back page of one of the main Iraqi newspapers, there was a whole page of photographs showing a severed torso and a head cut in half.

These images have an enormous impact.

Whether or not the market was hit by an American missile, it is believed to be an American missile by the Iraqi population.

Imported bananas

On the other hand, people are trying to go about their daily business, and they do realise the bombing is carefully targeted.

There is traffic on the streets during the day, and there haven't been any scenes of mad panic - even though the Iraqi defence minister says the Americans could be here within five days.

I was at a fruit stall earlier, and the vendor had apples, oranges, and bananas.

Some of these fruits would have been grown in Iraq, but a lot of it like the bananas would have had to come from Jordan, a road which will be cut off if the city is encircled.

The stall owner said there was no panic, and that he still had plenty of fruit for everybody.

It may be that the panic will come later, but as of yet, while daily life is difficult, the Iraqi people seem phlegmatic.

The movements of those reporting from Baghdad are restricted and their reports are monitored by the Iraqi authorities.