Caked pools of blood and a bullet hole in the window of Baghdad's al-Sa'ah restaurant are the only remaining signs of a US raid that killed five Iraqi civilians as they unwittingly drove into a firestorm.
Furious residents of the upscale Mansur district accuse US soldiers of firing indiscriminately at passing cars on Sunday as colleagues raided a villa in a vain search for Saddam Hussein.
"The cars came down the road. They didn't know the Americans were here. They were normal civilians and wanted to go home," one witness said yesterday as he stood in the courtyard of the Sa'ah restaurant. "They opened fire right away."
A US military spokesman said the raid was conducted by Task Force 20, a special team set up to hunt Saddam Hussein and his key aides, but gave no other details. Task Force 20 was involved in last week's raid on a house in Mosul, in northern Iraq, in which Saddam's two sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed.
After the shooting in Mansur, a soldier at a nearby hospital said the bodies of five people had been brought in from the scene of the raid, including a boy in his early teens.
Yesterday morning not a soldier was in sight in Mansur, and four burned or bullet-riddled cars had been taken away.
"All these things are making people hate the Americans," said Muhammad, a Mansur resident. "In the beginning, all the Iraqi people welcomed the Americans, but now the Americans have built a wall between themselves and the Iraqi people."
Residents who witnessed the shooting said about 75 US soldiers poured into the area in the early evening, blocking off the main street but failing to prevent innocent motorists straying into the fire zone from side streets.
"They need to have barbed wire up so that people know there is an operation," one witness said. "This is a residential area. They need to take care of the civilians. There are kids here." Another witness, who gave his name as Abbas, said he had turned away cars in a street near the restaurant. But smaller streets remained open.
Witnesses said soldiers opened fire from atop a Humvee armoured vehicle at the first car that neared their position. Moments later they raked a second car with gunfire as well.
"It was indiscriminate firing," one witness said as others nodded in agreement and pointed out a bullet hole in the restaurant window.
Flying bullets also hit the gas tank of a parked car, setting it and another car ablaze. In minutes, the shooting was over and the soldiers withdrew.
"They just left," one resident said. "Then the Iraqi firemen came to put out the fires."