IRAQ: Residents of the Adhamiya district of Baghdad enjoy stable lives as security improves

Record ID: 643683

  • Title: IRAQ: Residents of the Adhamiya district of Baghdad enjoy stable lives as security improves
  • Date: 21st July 2008
  • Summary: (MER-1) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (RECENT) (REUTERS) MARKET IN SUNNI NEIGHBOURHOOD OF ADHAMIYA VARIOUS OF SHOPPERS IN MARKET VENDOR DISPLAYING GOODS
  • Embargoed: 5th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA47Y2FQUJRDMR0PBAIOGQZ6BSY
  • Story Text: Life regains a degree of normality in Baghdad's Sunni neighbourhood of Adhamiya, where residents attribute improved security conditions to local "awakening councils."
    As Iraqi security improves, life seems to have regained a degree of normality in Adhamiya, once a restive Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad.
    Markets and streets are bustling, construction sites abound, and residents stay out after dark again -- two years after the explosion of a holy Shi'ite shrine in the city of Samarra unleashed a wave of sectarian violence across the country. Population in the capital is evenly divided between Shi'ites and Sunnis, more so than in any other region of Iraq.

    "Two years ago the situation was bad, very bad, but now there is security," said Ahmad al-Qaisi, a resident of the district. "This is a new mall that is being built, probably the first in Iraq. All is good and secure in Adhamiya," he added, pointing to a nearby construction site.
    Violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level in more than four years, the U.S. military says, but progress is still fragile and reversible.
    The drop follows a surge in violence that threatened to unravel the security gains made over the past year. A government offensive against Shi'ite militias in the southern city of Basra in March sparked widespread conflict in other towns and cities.
    An undertaker at the local cemetery says he has a lot less work these days, a sign that security has much improved.

    "The security situation used to be bad in Adhamiya. This cemetery couldn't keep up with all the martyrs. We used to receive twenty to twenty-five a day sometimes and we didn't have time to bury them all. Many died in shelling or killings or terrorist attacks," Nasir Waleed told Reuters.
    Adhamiya often comes under mortar attack and suffers incursions from the surrounding neighbourhoods. It has also been a stronghold of militant Sunni Arab groups. The area has been considered a stronghold of Saddam Hussein supporters where insurgents have launched frequent attacks on US troops and Iraqi security forces since the fall of the regime in 2003.

    "The current situation in Adhamiya is good thanks to the efforts of our brothers, the revolutionaries in the awakening council. The situation has improved. Now the Martyr's Cemetery receives much fewer murder victims, one body a week or sometimes every two weeks," he said.
    U.S. forces attribute the progress to the enhanced capabilities of Iraqi security forces and their increased involvement in counter-insurgency operations, the formation of largely Sunni Arab neighbourhood "awakening council" patrol units, and a ceasefire declared by anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

    "Our lives are better than before because the security situation used to be bad. We couldn't go out, see anyone, even if they were sick. We were confined to the district and couldn't move from one place to the other.
    Now the situation is much better thanks to the support of the awakening council, the support of the heroic revolutionaries of Adhamiya, and the support of the prime minister," said Haider, an Adhamiya resident.
    The predominantly Sunni Arab patrol units, known by the U.S. military as "CLCs", sprang out of a model which arose in western Anbar last year and has since spread to Baghdad and surrounding areas and provinces further north and northeast.
    Sunni Arab sheikhs in Anbar, tired of al-Qaeda's indiscriminate killing and strict interpretation of Islam, began forming young men into tribal police to patrol their own neighbourhoods and drive out al-Qaeda fighters.
    U.S. commanders backed the "Awakening" movement as they tried to bring down violence which threatened to tip Iraq into sectarian civil war between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs, training and paying the local police units.
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