Free Republic

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The ghostly ghetto of al-Thawra still whispers of massacres and mayhem. The 72-square-block slum of taupe hovels is home to nearly 2 million of Baghdad’s 6 million residents, and it carries a reputation that soldiers like Maj. Lainer Ward are changing. “We’ve worked hard to clean up the neighborhood,” said Ward, operational officer of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. “I’m not saying everything’s perfect, but it’s far from what it used to be. If you fear al-Thawra, it’s because you haven’t been here.” It’s a city going through an identity crisis. In the two months since the...

<p>April 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. soldiers in Baghdad evacuated police stations and the town hall in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim district of Sadr City after five days of fighting with supporters of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, Agence France-Presse reported.</p> <p>The district, called Saddam City under ousted President Saddam Hussein, is now named after al-Sadr's father, who was assassinated in 1999. It has been one of the centers of violent attacks against U.S.-led occupation forces in the past week.</p>

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 10/18/03 - Beiji, Karbala, Mosul, Saddam City, Tikrit, Baghdad BREAKING: Karbala - civil war between Shiites, freed by the USA BREAKING: Mosul - more than 100 terrorists taken BREAKING: Tikrit - U.S. Army and Iraqis work together BREAKING: Baghdad - children freed by the USA QFN ==== QUAGMIRE-FREE NEWS AND EXCELLENT FREEPER COMMENTARY =========== Baghdad =========== US heroes patrol the Tigris. In Baghdad, heroes patrol Saddam's palace, liberated by the USA. In Baghdad, Iraq, at the Al-Fathilia school, freedom courtesy of the USA. In Baghdad, school students have been liberated by the...

Parties, plunder, and prayer in liberated Baghdad Matthew Gutman May. 5, 2003 In Sadr City, the lawless and impoverished district in east Baghdad formerly known as Saddam City, the US has found a friend. The Shi'ite residents and their powerful clerics have thrown their support behind American troops, grateful that they rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein and hopeful that the US might drag them out of dire poverty. "We were the living dead under Saddam," said Said Fathen al-Yasser, a metal trader who specializes in pillaged Iraqi tank and artillery shells. "Now we are free. For the first time...

"What is your first name?" the young man with blood on his face was asked. "Saddam," came the answer. What is your family name? Again: "Saddam." Who do you fight for? "Saddam."The man being questioned, with his arms tied behind his back, admitted to being a Fedayeen, but he refused to say which country he was from. His captors, Shia Muslim militia in Saddam City, thought his accent was that of a Yemeni. In the past 10 days, they claimed, they had also captured Algerians, Palestinians and Pakistanis – Sunni Muslim "Wahabi terrorists" sent to carry out murderous sectarian attacks.A...

BAGHDAD, Iraq ---- For the U.S. Marines who've been fighting their way through Iraq, home has been wherever they hunker down for the night. It's been dusty roadsides in the heat and muddy fields in the cold. And since they burst into Baghdad last week, for some, home has been graveyards, landfills and rooftops. On Saturday, troops from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment packed up midmorning and moved from a gravel pit they were just getting fond of, across the slums of Saddam City, to what was left of an industrial supply yard that was recently looted and mostly...

At first they cheered, smiled, offered hearty thumbs-ups to the U.S. soldiers newly in their midst. But across Iraq's lawless capital, that sentiment is evaporating as quickly as Saddam Hussein's government melted away. It continues if you can stomach it...

"Scenes of joy" in the districts is and north-eastern of Baghdad "scenes of joy" burst Wednesday morning in the east and the North-East of Baghdad, signs "beginning of the end" of the mode of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, affirmed the correspondent of the BBC after the entry of the American troops in these districts of the capital. "There is nobody to stop them" expressing their joy of seeing the American troops arriving, declared the journalist Andrew Gilligan on line with the radio operator BBC. "I think that what we see is a sign of the beginning of the end...

American troops enter in Saddam City without meeting resistance American troops entered the night of Tuesday at Wednesday, without meeting resistance, in Saddam City, a suburb Shiite of the North-East of Baghdad where acts of plunderings on a large scale were announced, according to witnesses. The American forces, supported by military vehicles, were seen in streets of Saddam City where inhabitants entered stores to seize equipment, food, electric components and carpet. According to not confirmed information's, inhabitants drove out Fedayin de Saddam Hussein, a paramilitary body, before the arrival of the American soldiers in the night.

U.S. Marines advance unopposed through NE Baghdad BAGHDAD, April 9 (Reuters) - Thousands of U.S. Marines moved block by block through Saddam City, a huge urban sprawl in northeast Baghdad, early on Wednesday, continuing to sqeeze out Iraqi resistance in the capital. Reuters correspondent Sean Maguire, travelling with a unit of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said troops met very little resistance, getting a largely warm reception as they swept the low-income residential district. Saddam City is home to two to three million Iraqis, mainly from the Shi'ite Muslim majority, who have traditionally been marginalised by the Sunni ruling elite,...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 03/16/03 -USS T.Roosevelt, USS Kitty Hawk, B-2, GR7, A10, AV-8B, leaflets BREAKING: US SEEKS PEACE ---- BUT IS READY - GOOD MORNING BAGHDAD!!!!!!!!!!!!! BREAKING: USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Kitty Hawk BREAKING: B-2, 'Spirit of Oklahoma', 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, BREAKING: Harrier GR7, A10, Harrier AV-8B, Living Support Area 7, 633 Squadron Royal Air Force BREAKING: Nutcakes in Saddam City BREAKING: Leaflets dropped BREAKING: B-1 JDAMs in measured response ========= USS Kitty Hawk ========= Somewhere near Iraq, heroes on the USS Kitty Hawk prepare. ========= USS Theodore Roosevelt =========...