In Iraq, the Day After
The War, in a Sense, Is Over. But a New Struggle Begins As Citizens Ask the Inevitable Question: What Next? BAGHDAD — Maybe it was the only shot heard for days in a neighborhood once ordered by the...
View ArticleNew Paths to Power Emerge in Iraq
Cleric’s Ascent to Local Strongman Illustrates Shift Underway THULUYAH, Iraq — Nadhim Khalil wears the clothes of the cleric he is. He bears the scars of the insurgent he was. And in a country where...
View ArticleNo One Values the Victims Anymore
Devastating Blast Created Few Ripples in a Recovering Iraq ABU GHRAIB, Iraq, March 11 — At noon Tuesday, there was the explosion. Gunfire followed, and 33 people were dead, pieces of their corpses...
View ArticleA Journey Into the Iraq of Recollection
BAGHDAD — A sandstorm always makes a dreary Baghdad drearier. The sun turns to a moon in a funereal gray sky. Time surrenders its procession, as dawn melts into a cloudy day that feels like dusk....
View ArticleA Quite but Undeniable Cultural Legacy
U.S. Occupation of Iraq Will End, but a Host of American Influences ay Linger BAGHDAD — Across the street from the tidy rows of tombstones in the British cemetery, mute testimony to the soldiers of an...
View ArticleIn the City of Cement
BAGHDAD — There is a hint of an older Baghdad in old Baghdad. You might call it more of a taunt. It’s there at the statue of the portly poet Marouf al-Rusafi, pockmarked by bullets, who gives his name...
View ArticleWorries About Kurdish-Arab Conflict Move to Fore in Iraq
QARAQOSH, Iraq — Louis Khno is a city councilman whose city is beyond his control. In his barricaded streets are militiamen — in baseball caps and jeans, wielding Kalashnikov rifles, with the safeties...
View ArticleIn Anbar, U.S.-Allied Tribal Chiefs Feel Deep Sense of Abandonment
RAMADI, Iraq — There was once a swagger to the scotch-swilling, insurgent-fighting Raed Sabah. He was known as Sheik Raed to his sycophants. Tribesmen who relied on his largess called him the same. So...
View Article‘People woke up, and they were gone’
SUWAYRAH, IRAQ — The U.S. military called it shock and awe, and it began on March 21, 2003 — 8:09 p.m., to be exact. It concluded here with a sigh. No one quite remembers when the Americans withdrew...
View ArticleIn Thuluyah, reverberations of a U.S. raid
2003 foray set off a series of unfortunate events that still haunt Iraq town THULUYAH, IRAQ — Recitation of the Koran, mournful but consoling, played from a scratchy cassette as the men gathered in the...
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