The predominantly Sunni area around the Doura market has been Al Queda’s last stronghold in Southeast Baghdad, a grim and dusty enclave where in February, 553 sectarian murders were carried out, the bodies dumped sometimes among the few remaining open air stalls or the train tracks and road that runs through it. By November, the total number of homicides for this entire community of over a million was down to 30, a lower rate per capita than say Philadelphia.

Today's photos are from several locations.

 

Haifa Street and the Baghdad Zoo.  No word on whether the cheetahs are sympathetic to our G.I.'s.

 

Flowers growing at an intersection where 6 soldiers where 6 soldiers were killed in an ied attack.

Iraq is a graveyard for optimism, but it is hard not to feel at least a tremor of hope after spending an afternoon like I just did, in a Baghdad neighborhood that was once one of the deadliest in this blood-soaked country. It is called Ameriyah, and to give you an example, last May 14 American soldiers were killed there in a series of attacks, seven in a single day. Al Queda was everywhere in this predominantly Sunni neighborhood, its death squads terrorizing the minority Shiites, imposing strict Islamic law and killing between 15 and 20 civilians a week.