Word: faw
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...young people throng the streets in the evening to socialize, no longer scared of the militias that previously dominated the city. The weapons trade also seems to have declined, with a sharp drop in attacks since 2007 as evidence. On the long, deserted road from Basra to Al-Faw, an Iraqi soldier points out several muddy port towns, consisting of low concrete houses. "It is difficult for them. Iraqi families have four or five children," he says. "Before the operation, most of them were [arms] smugglers. Now I do not know how they get their daily bread...
Iraqi military and police commanders in the southern border provinces of Maysan and Basra, where Al-Faw is located, admit as much, though they say the government's military campaigns in the past three months have dramatically reduced the flow of illegal goods which, in addition to weapons, they say includes drugs, diesel fuel and wanted persons...
...year ago, Al-Faw and the nearby, larger city of Basra were major hubs for Shi'ite militia smuggling rings and a dangerous no-go zone for most Westerners and wealthy Iraqis. Kidnappings were rampant, and many local authorities were either complicit in the activities or too afraid to act. "Previously, yes, the army was present here," says Basra military commander General Mohammed Jawad Huwaidi. "But the outlaws and bandits were working under the names of parties. So we needed the political will to start the operation." One top Iraqi commander, who only agreed to speak anonymously, says the local...
Despite the regular military checkpoints along the road from Basra to Al-Faw, Iraqi military commanders in Basra say the stretch of border at Iraq's southeastern tip is still the most problematic, especially for the more benign, low-profit trade in illegal gasoline. At Al-Faw's small army base, nearly 30 butane gas canisters sit in the back of a truck, which the soldiers say was confiscated that morning. "They filled [the canisters] with diesel fuel for cars and they were taking it to fishermen to sell on the black market," says Al-Faw military commander Colonel Kareem...
Indeed, this isn't the first time Al-Faw or the Shatt al-Arab waterway have been the backdrop to tense exchanges between the two neighbors. "Al-Faw is dear to all Iraqis because it still holds the bodies of the martyrs from the war with Iran," said Talaa. During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the stretch of coastline was the site of several devastating battles between the two sides, including one in 1988 in which the Iraqi military under Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against Iranian troops. Today Tehran's friendly relationship with Iraq...