:
BAGHDAD: FIVE YEARS ON (9#) -

Blitz-lite, Baghdad's Metal Music,
Salam Pax & Christians going Deutsche Treat . . .

I was awakened this morning at 5am by news coming over my bedside radio that the Green Zone in Baghdad was under fire. Arose immediately and gulped down a cup of coffee I had stored in my fridge. Turned on the TV for local headlines, then logged online in order to determine the veracity of this story. After considerable searching, it seemed that AP may have been the source of this story, but I don't have a lot of faith in single-source news.

# "Witnesses said a rocket or mortar had been fired into the Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, The Associated Press reported this morning, Wednesday."

# *the Green Zone, was hit again Wednesday by "indirect fire," the U.S. Embassy said. There were no reported injuries in the indirect fire, the term used for rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, but the U.S. military says Shiite militants backed by Iran have been staging such attacks.*

# AFP reports that there were at least 52 rocket or mortar bomb hits on the Green Zone over the past week.

# "Baghdad has imposed a one-day vehicle curfew as a security measure for the fifth anniversary of the city's capture by American forces."

* * * * *
# Salam Pax was featured this morning on the Al Jazeera TV Net website as an Iraqi Voice. He's got complex, mixed feelings, as usual. His topic: Baghdad after Saddam.

# A music group from Baghdad called Acrassicauda is in a new movie, Heavy Metal in Baghdad, Paul Brownfield tells us at the LAT.

# Reporter Basil Adas describes the confused feelings some Iraqis have while marking this anniversary.

* * * * *
# Australia is offering to resettle about 600 Iraqis who have been working as translators and fixers for its soldiers and diplomats.

# And there is a notable article by Peter Wensierski at Spiegel about German refuge for Iraqi Christians.

...