Reporter's Notebook: Baghdad

When it happens, there is one thing you can do, which is to do what you came here to do: Report what is going on around you.

It's not just me. It's the cameraman and soundman and producers and technicians. We are the eyes and ears.

I'm not trying to cast us in any heroic light here. We make decisions to come to places like this when asked to do so.

Once you're here, there is no point hiding under a rock. You're not going to accomplish anything doing that.

I've been at this for more time than I care to remember. Really, you develop basic instincts of how to behave in situations. You develop a bit of a nose. You can smell trouble - and how to stay away from it.

Sometimes, you can't.

But - so far, anyway - it's work. There is a real sense of how things work in a situation like this. And when the attack first started Wednesday night, it really started with outgoing fire, anti-aircraft fire. That can be dangerous, because what goes up must come down.

Over our heads, there are a couple of gun placements. We're right under them. Behind me, there is a building with two "ack-ack" units on the top. We were showered with spent cartridges that were falling ten stories.

It became clear pretty soon that what we were seeing, largely, was outgoing from around us, and the closest incoming was maybe two, three miles away.

Maybe it's a false sense of security. But there is some security to it.

Reported by Mark Phillips