By Larry Kaplow
The terrible bombing in northern Baghdad Tuesday, which reportedly killed at least 50 people in a crowded afternoon market, highlights both the ongoing dangers here and the shifting security geography of the capital.
The Hurriyah (Freedom) neighborhood where the bombing happened is a predominantly Shiite area and is the typical target chosen by Al Qaida in Iraq. That Sunni Muslim group, made mainly of Iraqis, apparently aims to fan the fires of civil strife, in effect provoking Shiite militias into retaliatory strikes that will drive more Sunnis to their cause. U.S. officials have cautiously said that Al Qaida in Iraq has been greatly weakened and Iraqi officials have boasted that it is all but finished. But a string of bombings has occurred in Baghdad and other cities since the start of U.S. and Iraqi raids against Al Qaida targets in the northern city of Mosul a couple weeks ago. This was just the biggest death toll – since March, in fact. Al Qaida still maintains the strength for regular strikes.
The capital remains an unstable patchwork of dangers and safe havens - though much better than last year. This morning I came back from an interview in downtown Baghdad via Haifa Street. A year or so ago, that would have been unthinkable as the avenue of boxy, modern apartment buildings had been used off and on as an insurgent staging area. Today, Haifa Street was safe and looked rather tidy and healthy. The nearby Allawi neighborhood, once crime-infested, was also safely passable if still a collection of dilapidated storefronts and workshops.
On the other hand, I recently scrapped plans to go to the flashy, upscale Arasat al-Hindia Street, known for restaurants, banks and clothes stores. It stayed relatively safe through most of the five years of war and was a good place to meet both Sunnis and Shiites. But asking around before our trip, we heard it has been hit by an onslaught of gangster-like street crime. A money changing office there, where I used to go to get large cash transfers for my bureau, has been repeatedly robbed. It's hard to see how, as the office had careful security including lookouts on the street. The short strip of road has also been the scene of repeated carjackings.
Meanwhile, Sadr City, the slum of more than two million Shiites, changes nearly daily with the prevailing political winds as sailed by radical cleric Muqtada Sadr. His followers closely control most of the neighborhood and were ensuring safe passage for western journalists for most of the last few weeks. A recent decree by Sadr that he was reforming his militia and reasserting its right to attack U.S. forces, throws the area in doubt again.