Bert De Belder
23-03-2003
Sunday March 23, 11:15 p.m. Dr. Geert Van Moorter on the phone from Baghdad. A US airplane has been shot down near our hotel at about 8:30 p.m. Dr. Colette Moulaert has seen the huge fireball. I haven't seen it because I was strolling outside. But I heard a hissing noise followed by explosions. Then I saw many members of the civilian militia rushing to the scene. There was gunfire. I could understand from bystanders gestures and words that a pilot was arrested by the militias after he landed in the streets with his parachute. They are still looking for the second pilot on the banks of the Tigris river and were shooting flares and burning the shrubs on the riverbanks.
In the streets, the bars, in front of their television sets, everywhere the Iraqis were celebrating this strike. It becomes clear that the
Americans have a hard time and that Iraqi resistance is strong.