Normalcy returns to Baghdad, block by block

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BAGHDAD — Signs of improved security in Baghdad go beyond the obvious dampening of street battles and bombings: It's in the smaller transformations taking place in neighborhoods that the seeds of possibility are starting to take root.

"When we meet and talk, we speak about how we must hold together in the future, and if we don't, the future won't be so good," said Thayia Aziz Kudam, a neighborhood leader in the East Rashid area of southern Baghdad.

"Gangs, militias, al Qaeda — all of us, we want them to go away. We don't want them."

East Rashid was best known from 2006 until last fall for sectarian violence and al Qaeda's campaign of terror. It has long been a mixed community, with Sunni Muslims in the majority but with Shi'ites and Christians as well.

Today, a trickle of returning refugee families — about 400 since the end of October, according to one district leader — is greeted by large banners reading "Welcome back" and "We are all one."

The growing sense of hope and confidence is based on the establishment of security checkpoints by the Iraqi National Police and Iraqi Security Volunteers — an armed, neighborhood-watch-type organization being established across the capital.

Also helping is the frequent presence of patrols by U.S. and Iraqi military forces.

The Americans, members of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Cavalry, Stryker Regiment, are based in an abandoned Chaldean Catholic seminary at a combat operations post dubbed Blackfoot. The seminarians fled in 2006 after al Qaeda beheaded a priest and threatened the rest.

In September and October, the Americans fought fierce battles in East Rashid, facing snipers, mortar attacks and roadside blasts. A long line of photographs on a wall of the Stryker headquarters honors the young soldiers who died in the battle.

"When we first got here, there were memorial services almost every day," said Sgt. Jim Tripp, who belongs to a psychological-operations unit attached to the Stryker group.

Attacks with improvised explosive devices and snipings still occur, but far less frequently than before, the soldiers say.

Although Mr. Kudam's neighborhood is starting to resemble scenes of a normal life, the streets still are deserted in other parts of East Rashid. The problems are worst near 60th Street — once a major shopping area that became the scene of intense fighting between Iraqi militias and al Qaeda.

Only an occasional pedestrian is seen hurrying across the broad avenue, even now. Neighboring streets are lined with vacant, battle-scarred houses and heaps of rubble and garbage, disturbed only by scavenging dogs.

Farther from 60th Street, however, the streets are filling with people, walking more calmly and shopping at markets that sell everything from vegetables to small electronics.

"It's quieter now; not much shooting anymore," said Omar Mohammed Salem, a 12-year-old whose family moved to East Rashid after being driven from another area of southern Baghdad a year ago.

Many of the returning residents say they would like to see even more police checkpoints, which they consider key to encouraging more of their neighbors to come home and reopen shops and businesses.

That, in turn, will require increased cooperation between the Sunni and Shi'ite factions in East Rashid. Leaders of the two groups meet regularly with local and national police and the Iraqi army to discuss security needs and to resolve conflicts.

At one recent security meeting, Sunni and Shi'ite community leaders took up seats on opposite sides of a C-shaped table, barely looking at one another. But after two hours of talks, they were eating and chatting together.

"We are all one people," a National Police official told them. "All of us are responsible to God for the blood of the innocent people."