I walked up to the National policeman and asked him where the incident took place because I was a reporter. His eyes went round and he said that reporters were not permitted on the site by the Amricans – So, I took the crooked way to the site of the explosion through the open air market which is made up of venders that sell everything from vegetables to underwear. I bought some vegetables as camouflage and walked on. I could see that the streets behind the venders were completely empty. A ghost town.
I walked on until I reached a road down which was a National Police Hummer vehicle (blue and white) and so turned right and walked up that deserted street until a policeman waved to me,
 
"Hijiyah – go the other way. This road is blocked." And I shouted back, "I want to talk to you." The roads were completely empty all around me. The stores were all shuttered. When we met in the middle of the distance I told him that I was a reporter and that I wanted to get to the site of the explosion. He said it was not allowed. I asked him whether it was it good that the lives of the innocent are taken in such a manner without even a story written on their behalf??? That set him off:
"It is always like this. Whenever they (the US military) are targeted, they block the streets and begin to remove all evidence of the incident, as if by removing the evidence no incident took place – no people were killed – no families were broken. LOOK! (and he pointed down the street) can you see anything? It is as if those people never existed. One whole family was wiped out today. As for the Americans, they carried out around ten of them; I couldn't tell how many were dead and how many injured – they all looked dead. They were walking down the street, not far from their cars – and there were other people walking down the same street – innocent people who have done nothing except walk down a road that was used at the same time by the Americans. And now they are dead. We saw nothing strange. No one looked suspicious. And then the explosion. It is a tragedy. Even children from the houses brought out water to remove the blood stains."
 
The policeman did not give his name because he was not authorized to make statements.