Zayed / Healingblog – 2004-10-25 00:35:24

http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/

BAGHDAD (October 12, 2004) — Apologies for the long hiatus. I haven’t been online lately for several reasons…. [T]he daily situation in Baghdad is sadly too depressing to live through, let alone write about….

A close friend of mine was seriously injured but thankfully he survived. He works at an Internet cafe (I have posted about him before in a blog entitled ‘funny Internet stories’), and was shot in the abdomen when an armed gang sprayed a car belonging to a lawyer they were threatening to abandon a case with bullets.

The incident took place in front of a courtroom. IP [Iraqi Police] were close by but they did nothing to interfere.

Another acquaintance, a doctor called Zeyad Walid, was found decapitated in Yusifiya, southwest of Baghdad. He worked with a pharmacist, Zena Al-Qashtini, who was also found shot in the head.

They were both kidnapped from a pharmacy in Harthiya by 10 armed assailants a few weeks ago at mid-day in front of a large crowd of customers.

His brother abroad collected a ransom thinking he was kidnapped by petty criminals. Turns out that the pharmacy had previously sold some pharmaceuticals to the US army and this was their punishment for ‘collaboration’.

I remember it was reported that two bodies ‘with western features’ were located in the area, that was because the girl was blond. They have only been identified a few days ago.

One should wonder how kidnappers or terrorists are able to move so freely in and out of Baghdad with their victims unnoticed.
Will be offline again for a couple of weeks.

# posted by zeyad : 10/12/2004 01:20:12 AM