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Wed 04 Apr 2003A strange mix of normality and terror as siege mentality reigns
VIEW FROM BAGHDAD: A surreal sort of normality has descended upon Baghdad where, despite the bombing, people still go about their everyday tasks, reports Lara Marlowe
President Saddam Hussein's monumental Palace of the Republic rises above lush gardens, a couple of kilometres as the crow flies from my hotel room balcony. The first time it was attacked by US cruise missiles, on the night of March 21st, huge flames devoured its facade, and I expected to see a pile of ashes in the morning.
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