This morning, they gathered at al Shoula market to mourn.
People seemed bitter and uncomprehending rather than angry. No-one was expecting an attack here.
Markets get busy in the early evening in Baghdad - and that's exactly when they were hit. The crater was small, and there was no debris.
It's not clear whether this was caused by an Iraqi surface to air missile falling back, or American bombing.. But the people know who they blame.
"I don't believe it was a mistake." Says a shopkeeper. "The proof is that the same plane was there the day before. Also, a mistake is when a rocket misses a building by a small margin but there's no building here to be hit. There's no telephone exchange, no ministry, no party headquarters, look around - you can see this is a popular area, a market where people come to do their shopping, buy food and go home."
They listed the names of bereaved families. Abed, Sabah, Shes-ma-Hassoon. The community prepared to give condolences, while relatives buried the dead.
It's the second time in three days that the war has hit a popular area of Baghdad and killed scores of ordinary people.
This is a poor community and it still seems to be in shock. There's little of the ritualised chanting of praise to the President we've seen in other places. The people though do seem to think they've been targeted by the Americans who they're unlikely now to see as their liberators.
We drove through the dusty earth-packed streets of north-west Baghdad. To the hospital where the injured had been taken.
Ali Khoder is a student. he heard the aircraft overhead and went out to look. The family house is just 15 yards from the market. His brothers stood by the bedside: the whole family has been devastated.
"We were all in the house. The market gets going around six. We heard a plane in the sky. Then suddenly a rocket hit the area. People were slaughtered. My brother was injured, my nephew who's 11 was killed and my sister was wounded in the stomach."
Hospital staff were treating victims for multiple lacerations from shrapnel, fractures, and shock. Some died overnight. They worked all through the night and some of the injured were still undergoing surgery today.
We can only tell a few of the stories because there were too many.
Ikhlas Faiq was shopping in the market for her family like most of the victims..
Twenty year old Saddam Hussein Jassem is a secondary school student. He was also out shopping..
Then there are the children.
"What injuries does she have?
"Multiple injuries in her hand."
"So her hand is fractured.."
"And in her leg"
Dr Mohammed has now treated casualties in three wars:
"Such a disaster, this is the first time for me to see such people in a market and homes and so many children died."
All day and night the people of Baghdad hear the thud of bombs and missiles and the crackle of anti aircraft fire. They wonder if they and their families will survive this war.
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