'City of Peace' now a city in pieces (Baghdad) [View All]

[Rose Siding]

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Known for centuries as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, the Iraqi capital's landscape has been marred by concrete blast walls, barbed wire, steel barricades, sandbags and crumbling buildings pockmarked by bullet holes or gutted by explosions.

"We used to be under sanctions and the economic conditions were dire, but never was the city so ugly. Between the chopped trees and the burned houses, it's a total mess," said Fadhila Dawoud, a teacher who used to take her students on picnics along the banks of the Tigris. Now they hold picnics in the school courtyard.
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...Baghdad has survived the 13th-century mayhem inflicted on it by the Mongols, the 16th-century marginalization by the Ottomans and two decades of war and sanctions under Saddam Hussein.

After the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, the city of 5 million became one large military barricade: Humvees and tanks roaming the streets, helicopters rattling above, checkpoints and soldiers everywhere. A two-year insurgency compounded the problem.

Mayor Alaa al-Tamimi has made it his mission to bring back the city's former glory......MORE......

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3099993