Word: baghdads
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...with a measure of bravado, the government recently announced the imminent removal of most of the concrete blast walls that separate warring neighborhoods and protect citizens traveling on main and secondary roads. As it tries to put the bad days of Sunni vs. Shi'ite violence behind it, Baghdad is rewarding post-sectarian behavior, giving $2,000 to couples who marry outside their sect - an incentive for Sunni-Shi'ite nuptials - in an effort to construct a social metaphor for national unity...
...Baghdad was not spared on Monday. At least 20 were killed by nine bombs that were planted in trash, on the side of a road, in cars and in a minibus. Many of the dead were day laborers on a tea break at a construction site as well as residents of both Sunni and Shi'ite neighborhoods. Despite the mayhem, Baghdad's citizens aren't so sure that al-Qaeda has the strength to bring the country to near civil chaos, as it did in 2006-07. Iraqis are beginning to believe that the Islamist radicals of al-Qaeda...
Hussam's Blue Sky Restaurant is almost a counterpoint to the explosive nature of day-to-day security in Baghdad. Blue Sky stands in front of a minimall that sells clothes and toys on busy Rubaie Street, the main drag of the mixed-sect, middle-class Zayuna neighborhood. Reflecting on the news, Hussam is impressed by the drop in Iraqi fatalities: just 240 deaths in July 2009, an 86% drop from the same month in the bad year of 2007. "It's a large difference," Hussam says. "Better than two years ago." The paint in his restaurant is bright...
...With reporting by Nizar Latif and Eman Hamed / Baghdad and Serage Malik / Mosul
...warning signs that the Iraqi government is no longer under the sway of the U.S. forces that brought it into being. Reese notes a "sudden coolness" being displayed by Iraqi commanders toward their American counterparts after June 30, the date when the Status of Forces Agreement, concluded between Baghdad and Washington last December, required that U.S. combat forces withdraw from Iraq's towns and cities. Following that date, suspects detained by U.S. soldiers were freed by Iraqis. And the Iraqi government openly disdained the recent offer by Vice President Joe Biden during a visit to Baghdad to help mediate...