IRAQ: Famous Baghdad street reopens after facelift

One of Baghdad's most famous avenues has reopened, in what officials hope is a sign of returning normality as violence declines in the Iraqi capital. Children played on swings while a band belted out popular folk music to mark the reopening of a famous Baghdad riverside avenue on Saturday (November 24), part of government efforts to take advantage of declining violence. "Baghdad municipality is celebrating today the reopening of Abu Nawas street for pedestrians and traffic, also we celebrate the reopening of the corniche (side riverside) and gardens of Abu Nawas for people after years of neglect, retardation, extinction and devastation. Efforts have been exerted, exceptional efforts, so that the street would return to its normal position," said Adel al-Ardawi, in charge of information department of Baghdad municipality. Scores of U.S. and Iraqi security forces deployed in and around the thoroughfare along the Tigris River, frisking visitors and preventing cars from reaching the area where government officials held a low-key ceremony. Only a day earlier, a bomb hidden in a box of birds killed 13 people at a popular pet market in central Baghdad. The two million U.S.-dollar project to rehabilitate Abu Nawas street was aimed at showing Iraqis that a nine-month-old security crackdown called Operation Imposing Law had succeeded in reducing sectarian bloodshed and the number of car bombs. "It was (Abu Nawas street) under the spears of the security firms. I have looked at the Tigris and it was blaming and asking me to release this street. So, I have vowed that the beginning of our successful work will start from this gate," Lieutenant-General Abboud Qanbar, head of the Baghdad security plan, said. Qanbar said two bridges, destroyed by bomb attacks, would also be rebuilt as Iraqi forces sought to focus on reconstruction of the battered capital. The Iraqi military has said ten streets out of around 80 that have been closed for security reasons would be reopened this month in Baghdad. The closures have caused chronic traffic jams. Levels of violence have fallen across Iraq in recent months, with the U.S. military saying attacks were down 55 percent since an extra 30,000 U.S. troops became fully deployed in mid-June. With violence falling, something approaching normal life has begun to return to Baghdad. But Friday's attack on the pet market, a popular weekend spectacle where sellers display a colourful range of creatures form monkeys to parrots, may dent confidence that the lull in bloodletting will be sustained. Abu Nawas street, named after a famous 8th century poet, was once known for its bars and fish restaurants. Its park stretched towards the Tigris River where families picnicked. Following the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, the street was cut off from the rest of Baghdad by tons of concrete blocks as the city hunkered down behind blast walls that sprang up to protect against car bombs. On Saturday, nearly a dozen families strolled up and down the street, lined with trees and boasting new benches for people to sit on. Several vintage cars that belonged to former Iraqi leaders were on display, including a grey 1932 Mercedes that was a gift from Adolf Hitler to Iraq's King Ghazi. As part of the rehabilitation project, shop owners were given grants of 2,500 U.S. dollars to help them get back on their feet.

ITN Source | November 24, 2007

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