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Markets with sunnis and shiites bombed constantly { March 1 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7662436http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7662436
Iraq
A Month of Attacks Focused on Iraqi Markets
Morning Edition, March 1, 2007 · Deadly bombings occur nearly every day in Baghdad, or elsewhere in Iraq. In the month of February, attacks continued to focus on the markets that are at the center of Iraqi life. They are prime targets for an insurgency seeking to disrupt the rhythms of life.
Here is a list of major attacks on markets that took place in the month of February:
* Feb. 1: Bombings south of Baghdad killed as many as 73 people at an outdoor market.
* Feb. 3: A bombing at the Jamila Food Market killed an estimated 135 people.
* Feb. 8: South of Baghdad, a car bomb killed about 15 people at a meat market. The same day, a suicide bomber struck a bakery in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood.
Also that day, a new American general took over command of American forces in Iraq. Gen. David Petraeus arrived with a mandate to restore security to the capital. He'd been on the job just a matter of days when a series of explosions killed dozens at markets in central Baghdad.
* Feb. 14: President Bush laid out a definition of success in Iraq as "a society in which there is relative peace." That same day a car bomb killed two people at a Baghdad market.
* Feb. 17: Car bombs killed several people in the city of Kirkuk. Then a car bomb struck a Baghdad vegetable market.
* Feb. 28: A market bombing killed 10 more people.
Saleem Amer, an Iraqi NPR employee in Baghdad, says that the constant threat of bombing has changed the way people live.
** Quote added from audio --> "This market, it has different kind of people, it has Christians, it has Shiites, it has Sunnis."
"I used to go every day to shop for my family," Amer said. "But now ... I minimize everything. I have one time every week to go outside and shop."
Because of the danger in traveling to Baghdad's large markets, Ameer says that some neighborhood merchants have started offering to procure items for locals and deliver them home.
** Quote added from audio --> "Last night, 10:30 knock on door at night, and you know, a knock on the door at night is something dangerous. We looked to see who’s there, and its American soldiers.... I can see there is 15 humvees and hundreds of U.S. soldiers checking from house to house, searching the houses. They get inside my house. They search the house, they ask for weapons. We showed them we had just one AK-47, and they decided to leave the weapon. There are some houses in the neighborhood that have been taken by the Mahdi militia. They get inside these houses and took all the armed men. All the houses taken by the Mahdi militia are empty now, and everybody is so happy now in the neighborhood."
The current U.S.-Iraqi security initiative is paying dividends in Amer's neighborhood. He said that U.S. forces went house-to-house Wednesday in a search for Mahdi Army militia members. The action netted a number of people Amer described as "bad guys."
"Today we have more checkpoints by the U.S. soldiers ... and everybody is so happy in the neighborhood," Amer said.
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