Baghdad :: Rageh Omar :: 0115GMT

Baghdad is a completely quiet city. Standing in my hotel room looking out across the skyline and the streets below, I have seen only one car driving at high speed in the last hour. All the streets are deserted.

People have gone to their homes and have stayed there. Last night just after dusk I was walking around and all the shops were shuttered up and people were trying to get home. The streets are empty

People have made their preparations, the market has been full in recent days of people buying what they could, gas lamps, masking tape, dried foods. Now that the deadline has run out people are at home and are likely to stay at home.

I would still describe it as an open city, you would imagine Bagdhad would be braced for war in a military sense. You would imagine tanks on the streets, checkpoints, troops on the junctions of main roads, but they are not there. You do find a few sandbag positions with a couple of soldiers there, but that's it.

I went out to the edge of Baghdad to one of the main highways to the north and there was nothing there really, it was an eerie feeling. To the naked eye driving around here, there is no sense of this being a militarised city.


What the hell is happening in Baghdad?

There's rumours that Tarik Aziz had defected or been executed, and then he turns up telling the US to go fuck itself. In the meantime, Saddam disappears.

Rageh Omar, the BBC correspondent there, is saying there's hardly any sign of the military buildup in Baghdad.

So, the dictator isn't around, a guy who is suspected to have been a traitor turns up alive, looking nervous on the international media's cameras, and the army presence in a capital city of 6 million people (minus refugees) is minimal, and he's got nerve gas tucked away in reserve...

Scorched earth, anyone?