Tom Yum

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071104/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Thousands return to safer Iraqi capital By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer

Sat Nov 3, 10:37 PM ET



BAGHDAD - In a dramatic turnaround, more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned to their homes in the past three months as sectarian violence has dropped, the government said Saturday.

Saad al-Azawi, his wife and four children are among them. They fled to Syria six months ago, leaving behind what had become one of the capital's more dangerous districts — west Baghdad's largely Sunni Khadra region.

The family had been living inside a vicious and bloody turf battle between al-Qaida in Iraq and Mahdi Army militiamen. But Azawi said things began changing, becoming more peaceful, in August when radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to stand down nationwide.

About the same time, the Khadra neighborhood Awakening Council rose up against brutal al-Qaida control — the imposition of its austere interpretation of Islam, along with the murder and torture of those who would not comply.

The uprising originated in Iraq's west and flowed into the capital. Earlier this year, the Sunni tribes and clans in the vast Anbar province began their own revolt and have successfully rid the largely desert region of al-Qaida control.

At one point the terrorist group virtually controlled Anbar, often with the complicity of the vast Sunni majority who welcomed the outsiders in their fight against American forces.

But, U.S. officials say, al-Qaida overplayed its hand with Iraq's Sunnis, who practice a moderate version of Islam. American forces were quick to capitalize on the upheaval, welcoming former Sunni enemies as colleagues in securing what was once the most dangerous region of the country.

And as 30,000 additional U.S. forces arrived for the crackdown in Baghdad and central Iraq, the American commander, Gen. David Petraeus, began stationing many of them in neighborhood outposts. The mission was not only to take back control but to foster neighborhood groups like the one in Khadra to shake off al-Qaida's grip.

The 40-year-old al-Azawi, who has gone back to work managing a car service, said relatives and friends persuaded him to bring his family home.

"Six months ago, I wouldn't dare be outside, not even to stand near the garden gate by the street. Killings had become routine. I stopped going to work, I was so afraid," he said, chatting with friends on a street in the neighborhood.

When he and his family joined the flood of Iraqi refugees to Syria the streets were empty by early afternoon, when all shops were tightly shuttered. Now the stores stay open until 10 p.m. and the U.S. military working with the neighborhood council is handing out $2,000 grants to shop owners who had closed their business. The money goes to those who agree to reopen or first-time businessmen.

Al-Azawi said he's trying to get one of the grants to open a poultry and egg shop that his brother would run.

"In Khadra, about 15 families have returned from Syria. I've called friends and family still there and told them it's safe to come home," he said.

Sattar Nawrous, a spokesman for the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, said the al-Azawi family was among 3,100 that have returned to their homes in Baghdad in the past 90 days.

"In the past three months, the ministry did not register any forced displacement in the whole of Iraq," said Nawrous, who is a Kurd.

The claim could not be independently verified, but, if true, it would represent a dramatic end to the sectarian cleansing that has shredded the fabric of Baghdad's once mixed society.

The head of the ministry is Abdul-Samad Rahman, a Shiite appointed to his job by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is accused of promoting the Shiite cause to the detriment of Sunnis. Under Saddam Hussein, the Sunni minority ruled and heavily oppressed many in the Shiite majority.

Part of the inflow can be attributed to stiffening of visa and residency procedures for Iraqis by the Syrian government.

Mahmoud al-Zubaidi, who runs the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus, the Syrian capital, the flow of Iraqis has almost reversed.

What were once full flights arriving from Baghdad now touch down virtually empty, he told Al-Sabah, the government funded Iraqi daily newspaper. Now the flights are leaving Damascus with more passengers but the volume of travel is off considerably.

On average, 56 Iraqis — civilians and security forces — have died each day so far in this very bloody year. Last month, however, the toll fell to just under 30 Iraqis killed daily in sectarian violence.

More than four months after U.S. forces completed a 30,000-strong force buildup, the death toll for both Iraqis and Americans has fallen dramatically for two months running.

Across Iraq Saturday, 18 people were killed or found dead in sectarian violence, well below the year's daily average.

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Tom Yum

Hooyah Servicemen!

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DickHardman

ah yes, good to know that after 4 years of heavy, nonstop, brutal warfare with thousands of deaths and injuries on both sides, iraqs capital has almost been secured.

Tom Yum

So watcha gonna do about it?

You could always join the Peace Corps, go to Iraq and try to have a reasonable discussion with insurgents and Al-Qaeda. They're bound to listen to you...

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DickHardman

sorry bro, but i never supported this bogus war to begin with. if you want to go over there and help the billionaires that control our country make even more money off the death and suffering of other human beings, have at it bro. go get yourself a piece. i myself will not partake in an illegal war.

Tom Yum

You help the billionaires everyday when you shop at a major retail outlet, purchase gasoline or bud. What's the history behind oil, Dick? And whom do you support when you purchase your bud?

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DickHardman

well, if you are trying to say that directly taking part in bogus war were you may be forced to harm innocent people for an administration that wont even take care of your medical needs should you get harmed in combat is the same as pumping gas in the morning to get to work or buying clothes at a store, then i have to call bs on you. thats just some nonsense right there.

damn you are brainwashed.

liquidenvy

It's sad that a war can't be more like getting your cheeseburger at the drive-through.

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DickHardman

its sadder when people act as if going to war is the same as getting a cheeseburger in a drive through.

jubaji

Cheech is far too stupid to be taken seriously.

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DickHardman

thats why you make sure to answer all my threads and posts lol....

DickHardman

thats why you make sure to answer all my threads and posts lol....

Tom Yum

Bogus?

Al-Qaeda picked a fight with the American people on 9/11. Many of those American people represented 121 different nations, approximately a hundred or so who were Muslim.

I'm not going to pretend that oil and business isn't also involved in the Iraq war in particular, but Bush made a decision and picked a battle to open up a second front to the war on terror.

You're brainwashed. Even better? You seem to talk alot of smack about everything and do absolutely nothing about it.

If you have a plan that will end the war on terror do something about it. Put on a uniform, go volunteer for the Peace Corps - get out and do something. Everyone's got an opinion but it doesn't mean sh!t unless you do something about it.

Its just too easy for you to sit on the sidelines, smoke bud and then bitch.

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liquidenvy

I'm not a big fan of the present war. However, it's a done deal now. Blood has been spilled on both sides, so freakin FINISH THE JOB, do it right. War sucks, and don't tell me I have to actually be there to conceptualize that. ALOT of people who shouldn't die, do. Grow up.

Half-assing it out of there like we've done in the past is just not good enough, because it makes blood into nothing. And that is unforgivable.

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DickHardman

yes, al qaeda picked a fight with america, not the iraqis who got massacred in cold blood. if you werent so brainwashed you may have realized by now that iraqis had nothing to do with 911. osama himself was saudi.

the only reason al quaeda is now in iraq and using it as a base of operations to attack americans and other nations is because we let them roll right in and set up shop after we toppled the country. but thats ok, why would the corporate machine that makes tons of money off wars want them to end anytime soon???