On Tigris, Saturday night's all right for fighting

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BAGHDAD -- Television, DVDs and computer games -- that's entertainment in war-torn Baghdad. That's if you're lucky.Even the simple pleasure of sharing dinner with friends and relatives has fallen victim to fear of sectarian death squads and, more recently, a strictly enforced 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

Picnics by the Tigris, a drive to Fallujah for a swim in the lake or a kebab, nights out at the theater or movies, evenings with friends at street cafes -- all are just memories blurred by car bombs, mortar fire and late-night gunfire.

Visits to restaurants by night -- out; clubs where belly dancers would entertain until 2 or 3 in the morning -- closed; rooftop discos in big hotels -- in ruins.

An evening cruise on the Tigris that could turn into an all-night party -- forget it. Meeting at the club on a balmy evening for drinks with friends -- once upon a time, maybe.

"We are now like camels carrying a heavy load and eating dry grass," says Ahmed al-Zahrawi, a 25-year-old teacher working as a driver to support his family.

"There is no outside entertainment at all in Baghdad. Long before the curfew comes into effect, we are all in our homes, watching television -- if we have electricity," he says.

"We have no generator at home, so when the power goes, we just go to bed," adds Mr. Zahrawi, who lives with his parents and three adolescent siblings.

Favorite programs are action and adventure movies -- "lots of bang bang" -- he says.

Roadside money changer Abdul Mohammad Hassan says his favorite weekend pastime used to be taking his wife and four children to Jadinia park on the banks of the Tigris for a picnic.

"That is all gone," says the 45-year-old former government employee, trying to make ends meet through black-market foreign-exchange deals and selling old notes bearing the image of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.