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The Special Squad talks about opening the Green Zone: We have set a timetable


yota691
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5 hours ago, 6ly410 said:

Why not? It sets a stage .... we are opening up .. that’s all what do you think 

Yep, I think their on the right track. First off the ruling on the dead fish then it was the sidewalks an now clearing out a few concrete barriers in front of a few buildings. 

I guess my definition of progress an moving forward is a lot different than most.

I don’t know exactly what stage this sets for you but if it gives you that warm an fuzzy is all that matters...lol 

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Thursday, 10 January 2019 12:11 PM

 

https://www.thebaghdadpost.com/ar/Story/144131/أمانة-بغداد-رفع-الكتل-الكونكريتية-من-محيط-البنك-المركزي

The Secretariat of Baghdad: the lifting of concrete blocks from the vicinity of the Central Bank

Baghdad's immediate secretariat announced the lifting of gates and concrete blocks from the vicinity of the Central Bank and a number of streets in the capital Baghdad. 


A statement by the Secretariat that "the Secretariat of Baghdad in coordination with the Baghdad Operations Command began lifting concrete blocks and iron gates of the vicinity of the Central Bank of Iraq as well as lifting the blocks of the police station Bab al-Majd in the area of the field within the municipality of the center of Rusafa." 

He added that "the municipality of the torch completed the lifting of the concrete blocks of the street of the center of the torch within the locality of [454] and the streets of the locality {418} while completed the municipality of Ghadir lifting the concrete blocks of Palestine Street near the Academy of Police. 

The statement pointed out that "the Department of the municipality of Rashid raised concrete blocks From the intersection of Darwish and Abbas al-Azzawi Street, as well as the municipality of Mansour lift blocks of vertical alleys on the main Basra Street within the locality {649} 

He continued, "The municipal departments carried out a campaign parallel to the lifting of the blocks included lifting the waste and cleaning the streets and remove abuses and distortions and clean the grids and lines of drainage Sewage and rain

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  • yota691 changed the title to Re-opening an important street in Baghdad after its closure 15 years
Date of release: 2019/1/13 12:10  258 times read
Re-opening an important street in Baghdad after its closure 15 years
Baghdad: Baghdad Municipality announced the opening of the road adjacent to the Baghdad International Airport near Abbas bin Farnas Square in cooperation with the Baghdad Operations Command after the closure of the {15} years to facilitate traffic traffic.
A statement of the secretariat received the agency {Euphrates News} a copy of it, "the staff of the Municipality of Rashid in cooperation with the Directorate of Guard and Security and in coordination with the Baghdad Operations Command, opened the 21 st Street in Mahalla 893 link between streets {2 and 12} district of Euphrates. 
He added that "the municipal department staff carried out a campaign in the street, including the lifting of waste and the opening of blockages in sewage and rain drainage networks and the establishment of a number of drainage networks and the lifting of concrete blocks to facilitate the entry of visitors to the hospital of the Euphrates General."
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Editorial Date: 2019/1/16 10:49  321 times read
The opening of an important street in Baghdad and the development of five shops
{Baghdad: Al-Furat News} Amanat Baghdad opened the street link between the road to Mohammed al-Qasim for rapid passage and the street hospital Alawiya and the court after the lifting of the concrete blocks.
A statement of the secretariat received the agency {Euphrates News} a copy of it that "the municipality of Karrada in coordination with the Baghdad Operations Command opened the street link between the road to Mohammed Al Qasim for the rapid passage and the hospital and the Alawi and the Court. 
And, that "the Department carried out a campaign in cooperation with the Department of production units to lift all concrete blocks on the street mentioned and government departments within the plan includes all the streets of the capital." 
The statement added that "the Department of the municipality of Rashid opened the street after the lifting of the concrete blocks of the Sidiya area and the intersection of Darwish." 
He added that "the municipal departments carried out a campaign parallel to the lifting of the blocks, including the removal of waste and cleaning the streets and remove abuses and distortions and clean the networks and lines of discharge of sewage and rain."
He pointed out that "the secretariat of Baghdad opened a large number of closed streets in cooperation with the Baghdad Operations Command and continues to open all closed streets and remove the abuses that have occurred." 
In a related context, the Secretariat of Baghdad announced the direct development of five shops near the Karkh of the capital and 
pointed out that "the staff of the Department of projects, one of the formations of the Secretariat of Baghdad began the work of opening the boks Turabi and the compromises and settlement of the main streets and sub-sections of {438 and 885} 
"The department has also started the work of settlement and gravel gravel and the treatment of water outlets to the streets of [43, 45, 47, 49 and 53} and brushes layer basis asphalt material of the alley [38] within the camp {829} self-effort of the circle." 
She pointed out that "

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  • yota691 changed the title to The opening of a closed street in Baghdad 12 years ago
Date of release: 2019/1/19 13:08  132 times read
The opening of a closed street in Baghdad 12 years ago
(Baghdad: Al Furat News) The Secretariat of Baghdad announced the opening of Al Wasiti Street within the Renaissance area in the center of the capital.
A statement of the Secretariat received by the agency {Al Furt News} a copy of it today that "the street was opened after lifting the remains of it and proceed with a campaign to lift the accumulated waste due to closure of the street in 2006."
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  • yota691 changed the title to The lifting of concrete barriers from the street of passports and trust in central Baghdad

The lifting of concrete barriers from the street of passports and trust in central Baghdad

01:24 - 19/01/2019

 
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Baghdad - Mawazine News The 
secretariat of Baghdad, in coordination with the security forces, began on Thursday, lifting the fire in front of the Directorate of Passport Affairs and the Court and the opening of the alley 22 within the district 902 (National Security Department in Karrada).

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Iraqis are "happy" with joy
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For more than 15 years, the Iraqi capital  Baghdad has been  cut off by concrete barriers, dubbed "Sabat", that prevent the easy movement of people and vehicles between areas as part of the security plan that has been applied in Iraq following the security tension that followed the US invasion of the country. In 2003 and the years that followed.

These barriers came in several sizes, and the most common were the large ones, which are up to three meters each with a width of one and a half meters, the Iraqis have always linked to the   removal of security stability in the country, which is the security of the first citizens. Finally, the removal of barriers in the  capital included the  most important and sensitive areas, namely the Green Zone, where government and official headquarters in general, and other foreign embassies, international organizations and others. Many of the citizens, many of whom started filming the process of removing these barriers, roamed the streets that were closed in front of them, before publishing videos and photographs of their accounts on social networking sites.

"Farah Kebir" is what Abkhaj al-Ghafour feels and expresses to "the new Arab" and describes her as she roams again in a street that was closed to citizens in the Adhamiya district, north of Baghdad. "The street that witnessed our marriage, my husband and I, three decades ago, has been denied access to it for more than 10 years," adds the 50-year-old woman. "My relatives live on this street, so I got to know Ahmed, their handsome, handsome young neighbor. A few days ago we passed through the street, which holds our most beautiful memories for the first time in 10 years. We accompanied Mustafa, our first grandchild. "

 

Many people who did not want to miss the sight of these large trucks, which began to move the checkpoints from their locations to special places on the outskirts of the capital, to experience a feeling different from what they experienced when the barriers were moving in the opposite direction, from factories to manufacture at the outskirts of the capital to be placed within the neighborhood. Tariq Rahoumi, who watched dozens of trucks loaded with barriers as they passed through the front of the People's Mosque on their way south of the capital.The Frenchman tells the new Arab that he is raising his hand for each of the trucks, giving a farewell greeting, known locally, as referring to the adversaries, saying "a ghost without apostasy." "My feeling of joy and I see these trucks loaded with stutter, indescribable," Rahoumi said.

Some Iraqis end up reeling from the reopened streets and the cities that are gradually returning to their original shape after lifting concrete barriers. "Baghdad today looks like a camel that was being held in a dark cellar," says Falah Ramaid, a New Arab. "I feel comfortable. I walk in some streets and I contemplate the old sites of the barriers that cut one street or another into two halves, separate one from another, or isolate a section of a street to protect a government institution. "

For his part, the poet Ali Salem Salem described his city of Diyala in the east of the country, saying: "This beautiful back to the beginning," adding to the "new Arab", that "a young woman stands out her beauty and beauty without shame. I see her fluttering back to her old days. Its markets are not soothing and its orchards are once again welcoming visitors from different provinces to enjoy its charming scenery. "

In spite of the harshness of these "stalemate" as well as its expression of a difficult period in the history of the country, many of these barriers were private. Citizens have used their presence in the middle of the main streets and turned it into a means of advertising their products or shops and their own businesses. The cement barriers also represented a propaganda space for the elections, which were exploited by parties as well as candidates for campaign posters.

Perhaps the best use of these barriers was to turn them into paintings, and were deliberately young artists and activists painted it reflects the life of Iraq and pictures of cities known in the country. "There are beautiful memories of these barriers," says painter Farah Mahdi, 39, of the New Arab. I participated with fellow painters in a national artistic educational and aesthetic activity, through which we turned this deaf deaf cement to interesting paintings for those who look at it. " She added: "I painted several paintings over more than fifty meters, and I chose topics related to childhood, including what is talking about education, exercise, hygiene and patriotism." Farah says she was very happy to see how her drawings draw the attention and admiration of people as they pass through cement barriers, but affirm that "my happiness today is much greater, and I see these walls have been removed with its drawings. The return of security to my country is more important than any achievement I have achieved and am proud of. "

It should be noted that many Iraqis expressed their happiness at removing the "bottlenecks" and opening the streets of their areas, through popular rituals, and the women distributed "Thawabat" on this occasion. And the structure of the reward, Loyalty and Hera, twins at the age of ten, rushed to deliver "constants" to the homes of neighbors in Baghdad's Shalajiya neighborhood. And "constants" are the dishes of the "Dolma" Iraqi known by their mother. The mother of the new Arab says that she is fulfilling a vow of more than 10 years. "I swore to shake the world against my neighbors if cement barriers were removed from our street."

 

The New Arab

Editor Website: 2019 - 01 - 19
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To me, the removal of THESE barriers is FAR MORE than Symbolic AND EXTREMELY Good News to indicate the Safety, Security, Stability, AND (most importantly) Sovereignty HAS BEEN turned over to the BICRAQI IRAQI!!!

 

I suspect the Bicraqi Iraqi DID NOT erect THESE barriers of THEIR OWN accord but were erected by Coalition Forces possibly using Paid Bicraqi Iraqis.

 

So, for THESE barriers to be removed by the Bicraqi Iraqi, the Coalition Forces WOULD HAVE TO HAD transferred the stewardship to the Bicraqi Iraqis.

 

My gut feel is removing THESE barriers is at the onset of MAJOR Reconstruction, Construction, Economic Development, AND Foreign Investment and not just for convenience. If, for example, the removal of THESE barriers would present a relapse of terrorist activities, TO INCLUDE the Insanians, I suspect the Coalition Forces WOULD NOT HAVE turned over THESE barriers to the Bicraqi Iraqi.

 

The Bicraqi Iraqi are enjoying THEIR OWN sense of Safety, Security, Stability, AND (most importantly) Sovereignty by removing THESE barriers, cleaning up, AND restoring to normality. The normality, of course, being the NEW norm WITHOUT a dictatorship BEFORE THESE barriers were installed.

 

Also, my opinion is OTHER FOREIGN COUNTRIES will see Iraq as having gone FROM a war time period TO a peace time period Safe, Stable, Secure, AND (more importantly) Sovereign ENOUGH for Reconstruction, Construction, Economic Development, AND Foreign Investment with THESE barriers removed.

 

I have been looking for percentage of streets opened up AND/OR area opened up to track progress. Maybe "SUDDENLY" will be announced THESE barriers have ALL been removed AND...................... "SUDDENLY"........................

 

:backflip:       :backflip:       :backflip:

 

In The Mean Time............................................................

 

The "Standard Disclaimer" Applies.................................

 

AND (of course)...............................................................

 

Go Moola Nova (YEAH AND YEE HAW, BABY, READY WHEN YOU ARE BROTHER (OR SISTER) - LET 'ER BUCK!!!)!!!

:rodeo:   :pirateship:

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Monitor the movements of "strange" within the "Central Bank" of Iraq!

 Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 13:24 pm (2091 views)

Monitor the movements of "strange" within the "Central Bank" of Iraq!

Baghdad / Sky Press

Witnesses, monitored strange movements, within the Central Bank of Iraq, for two consecutive days.

Witnesses said that the bank witnessed the entry of cars carrying, at night, without knowing the type of cargo being taken out of it, pointing out that the process lasted two consecutive days.  

The Central Bank of Iraq, located in the capital Baghdad on Al-Rashid Street, was founded in 1947 and was formerly known as the Iraqi National Bank.

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2 minutes ago, yota691 said:

Monitor the movements of "strange" within the "Central Bank" of Iraq!

 Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 13:24 pm (2091 views)

Monitor the movements of "strange" within the "Central Bank" of Iraq!

Baghdad / Sky Press

Witnesses, monitored strange movements, within the Central Bank of Iraq, for two consecutive days.

Witnesses said that the bank witnessed the entry of cars carrying, at night, without knowing the type of cargo being taken out of it, pointing out that the process lasted two consecutive days.  

The Central Bank of Iraq, located in the capital Baghdad on Al-Rashid Street, was founded in 1947 and was formerly known as the Iraqi National Bank.

Woh

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43 minutes ago, yota691 said:

Monitor the movements of "strange" within the "Central Bank" of Iraq!

 Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 13:24 pm (2091 views)

Monitor the movements of "strange" within the "Central Bank" of Iraq!

Baghdad / Sky Press

Witnesses, monitored strange movements, within the Central Bank of Iraq, for two consecutive days.

Witnesses said that the bank witnessed the entry of cars carrying, at night, without knowing the type of cargo being taken out of it, pointing out that the process lasted two consecutive days.  

The Central Bank of Iraq, located in the capital Baghdad on Al-Rashid Street, was founded in 1947 and was formerly known as the Iraqi National Bank.

Bump 

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  • yota691 changed the title to Demonstrators cross the suspension bridge towards the Green Zone

Demonstrators cross the suspension bridge towards the Green Zone

01:12 - 23/01/2019

 
image
 
 

BAGHDAD - Mawazine News 
Demonstrations of dozens of employees and the families of martyrs, Wednesday, central Baghdad. 
A reporter / Mawazin News, "The dozens of employees and families of the martyrs went out today, a demonstration in central Baghdad, to demand their rights." 
"The demonstrators crossed the suspension bridge towards the Green Zone, in the center of the capital," the correspondent added

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https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-iraq-baghdad-revival-20190127-story.html?outputType=amp

Baghdad is reemerging from 15 blood-soaked years, but the city now barely functions

 
By NABIH BULOS
JAN 27, 2019 | 5:00 AM
| BAGHDAD
  
 
Baghdad is reemerging from 15 blood-soaked years, but the city now barely functions
Cars cross the recently reopened 14th of July Bridge, a major thoroughfare linking Baghdad’s banks across the Tigris River. The bridge, which connects to the Green Zone, had been closed since the start of the Iraq war in 2003. (Ahmad al-Rubaye / AFP/Getty Images)
 

For weeks now, Capt. Ghassan Ghani and his team of workers, cranes and long-bed trucks have stripped away what has been a fixture of this city since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion: the 12-foot concrete barriers lining Baghdad’s major roads and buildings as protection from suicide car bomb attacks.

Ghani, a member of Baghdad Operations Command, supervised one Tuesday evening as a crane lifted one of the slabs, known as T-walls, that had long hulked over a road in the Iraqi capital’s downtown. As the T-wall swung away, a shock of green emerged — an unkempt swath of palm trees adorning the corner of a government building.

 

“It’s time to do this,” said Ghani, “so that the old Baghdad can finally be seen again.”

Since late last year, about 12,000 T-walls have been carted away to a disused airport in central Baghdad, a temporary stop until they’re installed beyond the city’s outskirts.

 
 

It’s another sign of a city shuffling off the vestiges of 15 blood-soaked years that made Baghdad’s name a byword for death, and that culminated last year in the destruction of the militant group Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq.

Yet for many, the flush of that victory has given way to the realization that Baghdad, once a jewel among Arab capitals and now on the cusp of achieving mega-city status, is barely functional.

Teams of Iraqi soldiers have been removing the concrete barriers known as t-walls from around the city.
Teams of Iraqi soldiers have been removing the concrete barriers known as t-walls from around the city. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times)

The daily reality for more than 9 million Baghdadis is bumper-to-bumper traffic jams on roads unrepaired since before the U.S.-led invasion, and hours-long electricity cuts that turn broiling summers lethal. People are desperate for jobs, with almost a quarter of the working-age population unemployed or underutilized, according to the World Bank.

Those same problems afflict much of Iraq; last year, they spurred violent protests in the southern city of Basra.

 

The demonstrations felled hopes of a second term for then-Prime Minister Haider Abadi, the leader credited with saving the country from Islamic State but who couldn’t deliver the economic and political reforms needed to jump-start the economy.

His successor, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, has so far done little better. Eight months after last year’s elections, the independent with few allies in parliament has yet to form a government or pass a federal budget.

“There's nothing the prime minister can do other than removing concrete barriers. He's the prime minister of T-walls,” political commentator Abdul Rahman Jebouri said.

“It's become so bad that even removing cement blocks is an accomplishment.”

 

Still, it’s hard to dispute that the capital is safer.

There were no car bombings in 2018, said Lt. Gen. Jalil Rubaie, head of Baghdad Operations Command. That’s a remarkable contrast with previous years, when Islamic State and its precursors carried out hundreds of attacks, often multiple bombings on the same day.

The car bombs killed hundreds and forced the government to balkanize Baghdad with T-walls and dozens of checkpoints. The city became a labyrinth, its roads inexplicably cut off and its green-lined boulevards obscured by a T-wall crust of drab concrete.

 
Times staff writer Nabih Bulos reports from the streets of Baghdad.

Other incidents, such as shootings, robberies and attacks with smaller roadside bombs and hand grenades were also down 40% compared with 2017, said Michael Knights, an Iraq expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who collects U.S. government and Iraqi open-source data on violence in the country.

 

That, along with a 2015 lifting of a midnight curfew, has resulted in a resurgence of Baghdad’s legendary nightlife. Street cafes teem with young men sporting gravity-defying mohawks or gel-slicked pompadours. Musicians, theaters and comedy shows are popular, and Mansour Mall, Baghdad’s biggest, was packed in December with families posing in front of a Christmas tree installation.

Later in the evenings, dedicated drinkers materialize before rows of liquor stores, tombola joints and “super” nightclubs (essentially strip clubs) on Abu Nuwas Street.

In addition to removing T-walls, authorities have loosened other security measures, mostly to improve conditions for drivers of the 1.8 million cars registered in Baghdad. (Hundreds of thousands more enter the city from all over the country every day.) Over the last year, 35 checkpoints have been removed, said Rubaie.

Last month, to mark the first anniversary of the government’s victory against Islamic State, Abdul Mahdi ordered the partial opening of the 14th of July Bridge, a major thoroughfare linking Baghdad’s banks across the Tigris River that has been closed since the start of the war in 2003.

The move cuts the hourlong journey across the river to five minutes by allowing motorists to cross through the reviled Green Zone, a 4-square-mile area of lawns and wide, pristine boulevards that housed late leader Saddam Hussein’s palaces and, after the invasion, the headquarters of U.S. civilian and military authorities, international diplomats and aid offices. It also houses the parliament building, the seat of the new Iraqi government.

Feeding the seagulls hanging out near the Ahrar bridge is a popular afternoon activity in Baghdad.
Feeding the seagulls hanging out near the Ahrar bridge is a popular afternoon activity in Baghdad. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times)

It’s usually closed to most Iraqis, save for their politicians, who insulate themselves from the privations the rest of the population endure every day. (Traffic lights here are unaffected by the intermittent electricity.)

But for many, access to the bridge is hardly a point in the government’s favor.

“You're like someone whose jacket was taken. You're cold. Years later, they give it back to you and expect you to say thank you?” said Hussam Mahdawi, an unemployed 45-year-old man visiting Mutanabi Street, the heart of Baghdad’s book-selling district.

Mahdawi’s thoughts echoed those of Mohammad Ali Agha, an out-of-work anthropologist out with his wife and three children one Friday evening at the Zawra amusement park.

“Electricity, water, basic schooling.… It’s shameful we have to think of such basic things. A rich country like ours, we should be talking about human rights and higher education,” said Agha, adding that his children were packed in classrooms with 60 other students.

“And the politicians who put us in this mess never go away,” he said. “I want someone with different ideas, someone who would separate religion from the state and bring something new.”

 

Zawra Park, which opened in 1971 and which includes a 200-acre zoo, is the story of Baghdad in miniature: a once beautiful area that has fallen in disrepair because of neglect, conflict and corruption.

The problem isn’t even the buildings that were destroyed after the U.S. invasion. It’s the people themselves who are now destroyed.

 SALEM ASEEL, 56-YEAR-OLD BAGHDADI

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A comedian exhorts passers-by to attend a show. Baghdad is known for its theaters.
A comedian exhorts passers-by to attend a show. Baghdad is known for its theaters. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times)

Other monuments, such as a gargantuan pair of crossed swords — held by hands modeled after those of Hussein — that loom above Grand Festivities Square or the 673-foot Baghdad TV tower, have also faded.

At least Hussein built something, said Salem Aseel, an unemployed 56-year-old.

“No matter what these politicians do, it won't compensate for what they did these 15 years,” said Aseel. He spoke of buildings raised around the time of the birth of the Iraqi Republic, after Iraq’s monarchy was toppled in a 1958 military coup. “It was a golden era.”

But, he added, “the problem isn’t even the buildings that were destroyed after the U.S. invasion. It’s the people themselves who are now destroyed.”

Before it can tackle grandiose projects, Iraq now faces the formidable challenge of rebuilding a country ravaged after more than four years of battling Islamic State. The government estimates that will cost more than $88 billion.

Yet the 2019 budget, which amounts to more than $110 billion in total spending, has 75% set aside for operational costs, experts and politicians say, with relatively meager allocations for reconstruction in areas clawed back from the extremists.

la-1548480112-ev2qezucvs-snap-image
(Los Angeles Times)

Electricity, a long-standing issue, will get 8% of the budget.

But the government will need to rehabilitate a grid that produces an average of 15,000 megawatts, although peak demand reaches 22,000 megawatts, said Electricity Minister Luay Khatteeb. Islamic State’s looting of power lines has reduced power generation by at least 4,500 megawatts, he said.

Job creation is also a major demand, but political blocs have chosen to fatten an already bloated public sector instead of growing the private sector.

And all this relies on oil prices holding steady as well as the U.S. granting a waiver for Iraq to ignore sanctions on Iran — both questionable scenarios.

Much also depends on keeping Islamic State at bay. Knights, the Iraq expert, said that authorities had succeeded in making Baghdad safer than it has been in years, but “that’s also because [Islamic State] had put the majority of its power defending cities it controlled.”

But with those areas no longer under its grip, the extremist group has returned to its guerrilla warfare roots.

Last month, Islamic State struck the northwestern city of Tall Afar with a car bomb that killed three people and wounded 13 others. Many believe it’s only a matter of time before it will hit Baghdad.

“It’s a choice by the enemy, and that can be reversed,” said Knights.

Ghani, who supervised the removal of the T-walls, said some Baghdad residents were nervous about them coming down.

“Some people objected, and said they were afraid of attacks. That’s why we removed the ones in front of the Defense Ministry first,” Ghani said.

“We figured once people saw us doing it they couldn’t say anything.”

Knights said the Iraqi government plans to redeploy the T-walls on Baghdad’s perimeter, funneling traffic through certain roads and using air surveillance and better intelligence to facilitate movement.

Islamic State still maintains a presence in various pockets on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border, taking advantage of lack of coordination among the various forces in the area to hide and regroup.

Agha, the unemployed anthropologist, however, proposed a solution for that too.

“Why don't we do like Trump?” he said, giving a rueful smile.

“Let’s just put all those concrete barriers on the border, and make a wall with Syria,” he deadpanned. “That should stop everything.”

Children play at Baghdad's Zawraa Dream Land, an amusement park opened in 1971.
Children play at Baghdad's Zawraa Dream Land, an amusement park opened in 1971. (Nabih Bulos / Los Angeles Times)
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I think this may be a step behind, it says budget is not passed. Could be admission that situation is improving but not want to admit it is as good as it is. Some people do not want good news to get out, because it might make President look good. In my humble opinion. 

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  • yota691 changed the title to The Special Squad talks about opening the Green Zone: We have set a timetable

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