Report from Christian peacekeepers in Baghdad

The Christian peacekeepers team in Baghdad reported at 8.30 this morning, from the Al-Daar Hotel that they had survived another night of heavy bombing from B52 bombers. They said it felt like the bombs were bigger or perhaps closer, although they were not close enough to do damage in the immediate neighbourhood. The last bombs fell an hour earlier and some also fell twice during the previous day. They had heard eight hours earlier from the CPT/IPT team camped out at the Al Wathab Water Treatment Plant adjacent to Medical City. No bombs had fallen near this complex. They had not heard recently from the IPTers at the Al Fanar Hotel. There is a lot of smoke over the city from both burning buildings and pits of burning oil. The blackness in the sky looks like an approaching storm and it obscures the sun. Team members visited several wounded civilians at the Yarmouk Hospital downtown. People were injured when a nearby government building was bombed resulting in wounds from shrapnel and flying glass and head injuries from pressure wave concussion. Yesterday several team members attended Mass at St Raphael's Catholic Church. Others met with Margaret Hassan, Director of CARE International. The UN food distribution had stopped and while some private food shops are open, prices are climbing very rapidly as shortages develop. The water supply and telephones have stayed on. The power went out for a few hours during the bombing but is back on. The team says that Iraqis are not shocked nor awed by what they have seen. While the bombs are coming from on high, they say that God is higher. They say that God looked down on the Tower of Babel (south of Baghdad) and found it insignificant. According to the Bible (Gn. 11), the people of Babel had said, "Come let us build a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves." But God destroyed their high tech tower, and frustrated their attempt to invade the abode of God, and then "the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth."