I was in the Amiriyya district of Baghdad today for a family visit, when I noticed the growing mounds of trash on the sides of the streets, and on the street medians. Amiriyya is a generally middle-class, clean district, and this new look is fairly strange to the area (though not to other parts of post-Saddam Baghdad).
Apparently, this new look is what was ordered by the doctor- in this case the rebels of Amiriyya. In post-Saddam Baghdad, Amiriyya has remained one of the areas outside the control of the American and Iraqi troops (as evidenced by graffiti reading "GET OUT WE HATE YOU" which I saw on my way home). The rebels have ordered stores/trash collectors/mosques, etc in the area to leave their trash out on the side of the road and on road medians so that they could plant roadside bombs in the middle of them, hiding them for American and Iraqi convoys driving by. They have also killed a couple of poor trash collectors who did not heed their words. My cousin in law's husband had a local mosque imam corroborate to him the truth of this warning, which they had received . Sad.
Another manifestation of the chaos and lawlessness that has spread all over post-Saddam Iraq. I didn't get to take pics this time, but next time I'm in that area, I'll try to get some pics of the natural beauty of the area.
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2 comments:
But why do you still go there? Isn't really dangerous?
Life in all of Baghdad is dangerous; but people go on with their lives here, and it is only with God's protection that one is safe.
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