10-year anniversary of Baghdad fall to US forces

BAGHDAD (AP) — Ten years ago, a statue fell in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Joyful Iraqis helped by an American tank retriever pulled down their longtime dictator, cast as 16 feet of bronze. The scene broadcast live worldwide became an icon of the war, a symbol of final victory over Saddam Hussein.

But for the residents of the capital, it was only the beginning.

The toppling of the statue remains a potent symbol that has divided Iraqis ever since: Liberation for Shiites and Kurds, a loss for some Sunnis and grief among almost everybody over the years of death, destruction and occupation that followed the fall of Baghdad to U.S. forces on April 9, 2003.

"Ten years ago, I dreamed of better life," said Rassol Hassan, 80, who witnessed the fall of the statue from his nearby barber shop. "Nothing has changed since then for me and many Iraqis, it has even gotten worse."

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the overwhelming majority of Iraqis agree that they are better off today than under Saddam's brutal dictatorship.

"Iraqis will remain grateful for the U.S. role and for the losses sustained by military and civilian personnel that contributed in ending Hussein's rule," he said.

"Iraq is not a protectorate of the United States; it is a sovereign partner," al-Maliki said in response to the contention that Iraq has become more pro-Iran than pro-West. "Partners do not always agree, but they consider and respect each other's views. In that spirit, we ask the United States to consider Iraq's views on challenging issues, especially those of regional importance."

In the past 10 years, Iraqis have seen the country's power base shift from minority Arab Sunnis to majority Shiites, with Kurds gaining their own autonomous region.

"For Kurds there is no regret," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator. "April 9 is a national liberation day for us."

Ali al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraq's Shiite-led government, said "April 9 is a day of contradictions: We ended the oppression of Saddam" but began the American occupation. Still, he emphasized that Iraqis were looking forward.

"Our fight is . against terrorist groups that kill people and want to prevent them from tasting the freedom they had lost for 30 years (under Saddam)."

A Sunni lawmaker, Hamid al-Mutlaq, was unsparing in his assessment of what happened a decade ago.

"Baghdad, the city of history and civilization, fell into the hands of a brutal occupation that ignored all laws," al-Mutlaq said. "They came as occupiers and killers unlike what they said before. They left us killing, sectarianism and displacement," he added. "It is a black and ominous day in its history. It is a day of slavery."

Baghdad has indelibly changed since the darkest days of the war.

Residents no longer flee their neighborhoods fearing sectarian violence. Bridges joining Sunni and Shiite areas have reopened. Hotels are being renovated as foreign investment trickles in.

But car bombs targeting police, Shiite mosques and government offices, mostly the hallmarks of al-Qaida militants, still ravage the city of some 7 million.

Ten years on, the city is draped in a spider's web of generator cords wrapped over crumbling buildings and crisscrossing above unpaved streets, a sign of the graft-ridden government's failure to restore power or rebuild basic infrastructure.

Shiite power is evident in posters pasted around the city — on security checkpoints, billboards, concrete walls. Most show the Shiite hero, the Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed with his bearded face draped in a green turban.

Other walls are painted with scenes of ancient Iraqi civilizations. Some offer practical graffiti, such as the phone number of a tow-truck service.

Walls now are also emblazoned with posters of candidates for provincial elections slated for April 20: Turbaned, bearded Shiite clerics mix with clean-shaven, businessmen clad in suits and female candidates in headscarves and tidy makeup.

Amid Baghdad's near-universal neglect runs a divide between jeep-driving elites in guarded streets and the city's poor.

Men and women shove each other aside at a dump on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad, fighting to grab bags of garbage tossed off a truck, searching for cans and plastic to sell to recycling factories. Children in grubby clothes play among garbage, a pool of green sewage stinking nearby.

"Look at my condition!" demanded Ali Hassan, one of those digging through garbage. "Is this how a human should live? Politicians are fighting over jobs while people live in poverty."

There are also flashes of joy in the city hugging the banks of the Tigris river.

Couples stroll riverside walkways, and children play in parks along its banks. Residents traipse through al-Mutanabi street, a pedestrian alley of booksellers.

Books are neatly displayed on tables and floors: Arabic poetry, heavy tomes of Islamic law and etiquette guides. Stationary shops sell calendars featuring bloodied Shiite martyrs and notebooks with covers of the yellow cartoon character "Spongebob Squarepants."

Nearby, families stroll through a museum featuring mannequins in traditional scenes, such as a wedding, circumcision, and a cafe. For an extra fee, visitors may be photographed in colorful costumes and have the photo inserted into a snow globe.

The dozens of young men who helped pull down the 16-foot bronze Saddam statue in Firdous Square 10 years ago were mostly from the nearby Iraqi communist party office.

But the statue was reinforced by metal cables and finally Marines with a crane finished the job. It was meant to be the swift end to an invasion that began only three weeks before.

Another statue made by an Iraqi artist soon replaced Saddam, but was also pulled down. The modernist structure, with branches reaching toward the sky and a crescent moon balancing a ball was supposed to represent the freedom and unity among Iraq's Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

On Tuesday, the pedestal stood empty, save for a rusted iron bar poking out of it.

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With additional reporting by Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad.

Follow Hadid on twitter.com/diaahadid; follow Salaheddin on twitter.com/sinansm

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Gunmen raid 4 newspaper offices in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AP) — Gunmen in military uniforms burst into the offices of four independent newspapers in Baghdad, stabbing and beating employees, staff and officials said Tuesday.

One editor said he recognized the attackers as members of a Shiite militia, saying the raids came after his newspaper published an article criticizing a prominent hard-line cleric. It underscored the dangers facing the media in Iraq, one of the most dangerous places in the world for reporters.

Also Tuesday, gunmen killed two men and kidnapped another in a trailer camp on a remote gas field near the Syria-Iraq frontier. Iraq intelligence officials say al-Qaida militants are growing stronger in the border region, taking advantage of the lawlessness on the edge of Syria's civil war.

In Baghdad, some 50 assailants participated in the coordinated, brazen Monday evening attack, said Bassam al-Sheikh and Ali al-Daraji, two editors of newspapers whose offices were attacked.

The raiders attacked reporters with batons and knives and smashed computers and furniture in the offices of al-Sheikh's newspaper, al-Dustour al-Jadida, the editor said.

Al-Daraji said the attackers who came to his newspaper, al-Mustaqila, smashed windows and set fire to a car. "It was so horrifying that we could not do anything," he said.

A health official said four newspaper staffers were hospitalized with stab wounds and another was badly beaten. A police officer said an investigation was under way.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to the media.

Al-Sheikh said that he recognized the attackers as militant Shiites belonging to a hardline group headed by cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi. He said during the attack they berated him for publishing an article in his paper accusing al-Sarkhi of trying to dominate the holy city of Karbala.

Al-Sarkhi's office was not available for comment.

The city, 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad, is home to two revered Shiite shrines. In the last decade it has witnessed power struggles between Shiite militias.

"The message of the assailants was to shut mouths," al-Sheikh said. "This is a dangerous precedent," he said.

Al-Daraji said they had run a similar story, but also published a response from the Shiite cleric's office. He said the assailants did not say anything during the raid, and he did not know why the newspaper was attacked.

The two other attacked offices belonged to al-Parliman and al-Nas.

The four newspapers are considered medium-sized to small. The largest, al-Dustour, claims a run of 12,000 copies daily.

In response to the attacks Tuesday, blue-khaki clad police set up checkpoints through the middle-class Karradeh neighborhood, snarling traffic. Other security forces in drab beige khaki, masked faces and heavy weaponry deployed on a main Baghdad thoroughfare.

Government officials were not available to comment.

Iraq is ranked among the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Hundreds were killed in the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

But such attacks have been less common of late. The last major attack on reporters was the slaying of a television presenter Ghazwan Anas in July 2012, who worked for a channel in the predominantly Sunni northern city of Mosul.

Also in Iraq, a provincial official said gunmen attacked workers at a remote gas field near the Syria border, killing two men and kidnapping one.

Farhan Farhan, the mayor of the western town of al-Qaim, said the gunmen set fire to workers' trailers at a camp near the gas field, killing an engineer and a manual laborer. The kidnapped man is the brother of the head of the Iraqi company building the camp site.

Farhan said the attack took place on Monday. He says the Iraqi company was contracted by South Korea's KOGAS to build the trailer camp before developing the gas field. No KOGAS employees were on site.

Al-Qaim is about 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Baghdad, just across the border from Syria. Iraqi officials are taking advantage of Syria's turmoil and the porous border to rebuild their strength in this region.

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Diaa Hadid contributed reporting from Baghdad. Follow Salahedddin at twitter.com/sinansm

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Series of bombs kills at least 22 in Baghdad: police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs and roadside blasts killed at least 22 people in Shi'ite districts across the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Tuesday, police and hospital sources said.

Sunni Islamist insurgents tied to al Qaeda have stepped up their campaign of attacks this year in an attempt to trigger sectarian tensions and undermine Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite-led government.

(Reporting by Kareem Raheem and Ahmed Rasheed; writing by Patrick Markey)

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Police clash with Sunni worshippers in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say several Sunni worshippers were injured when police tried to prevent them from reaching a prominent mosque in northern Baghdad.

Police officials said anti-riot police used batons and water hoses in order to prevent worshippers from crossing a bridge leading to the Abu Hanifa mosque, located in the primarily Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah.

The officials say said several worshippers sustained bruises and minor injuries in the skirmishes. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

Last Friday, security forces prevented worshippers from holding Friday prayers at Abu Hanifa mosque.

Minority Sunnis frustrated over what they claim is second-class treatment have taken to the streets across Iraq since late December.

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