At least one US cruise missile exploded in the Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Qadissiyah last night; of that, we can be certain. A 30-foot-deep inverted cone-shaped crater filled with water was all that was left of Abdul-Bari Samaraii's little villa, writes Lara Marlowe, in Baghdad.
Sofa cushions had been blasted across the street. Blankets and oriental carpets were twisted around broken palm trees. A Koran lay half-buried, its pages singed.
Neighbours said that Mr Samaraii's wife Halima, his son Ahmad and his daughter Rafal had been wounded, but in the chaotic visit organised by the Ministry of Information it was impossible to learn more of their fate. Instead, we were subjected to the umpteenth demonstration of party faithful raising their fingers in "V for victory" signs and chanting about how much they loved Saddam Hussein.
Across the back garden wall of the Samaraii family villa, the home of Amer-Ahmad al-Dulaimi had been shaved away by the missile, so that its back was open, like a doll's house. Standing on the edge of the crater beside the Samaraiis' home, you could look into the upstairs rooms of the al-Dulaimis: at the ceiling fans, a book-shelf, refrigerator, mirrored dresser, oil lamps . . . Their possessions spilled over the edge and down into the crater.
As Mr al-Dulaimi cursed America and George Bush and a clutch of photographers clambered over the ruins of the factory owner's house, another big chunk of it fell away, nearly taking the photographers with it.
Mr Fares Abdul-Razzak, another neighbour, said that five houses had been destroyed, which was probably true. I saw four, but the dust and rubble were so thick that it was difficult to determine where one ended and the next one began.
Mr Abdul-Razzak was at home when the cruise missile exploded just before 8 p.m. "I cannot describe it," he said. "Only light, and sound, and glass breaking and the walls moving."
There is a children's school at the end of the street and Yarmook hospital is two blocks away. No one could think why the US might target their nice middle-class neighbourhood, with its heavy scent of orange blossom still permeating the dust. Yet most of the residents were not at home when the missile struck. "We'd had 15 \ the night before, so we all left," Mr al-Dulaimi said.
Could the missile - or bomb - have been led astray by the oil-trench fires which ring the capital city? Or was there something - or someone - we were not told about, hiding in the shady lanes of al-Qadissiyah?