Scenes of Baghdad

Images of Baghdad after the start of the security operation. Most images are from the Sunni-majority Adhamiya district.

The Al-Nidaa' Mosque in Adhamiya


Part of the Tigris in the Sifeena neighbourhood in Adhamiya seperating it from Kadhimiya


The Imam Al-A'dham Street in Adhamiya




The storeowner in this photo had his store blocked with bricks to keep out looters.




The Sheikh Omar Mosque and cemetery in central Baghdad from the Mohammed Al-Qasim highway

Antar Square near the entrance to the Adhamiya district

The once popular Al-Jandool (Gondola) pizza restaurant at Antar Square

Al-Dilal Square near the former Saddam palace at Adhamiya. It had large copper Arabic coffee pots on those pedestals.

The abandoned former Youth Ministry building at Tahreer Square, just across the Tigris from the Green Zone, bombed in 2003 and still stands in ruins

An abandoned playground near the police station in Adhamiya

The commerical Imam Al-A'dham Street in Adhamiya as it looks today. It is lined with concrete blocks and barriers leading to the Imam Abu Hanifa mosque and shrine

The Mohammed Al-Qasim highway near the Waziriya District

The Sahha Square near the shrine of Imam Abu Hanifa in Adhamiya. The closed bridge is Al-A'imma Bridge (the bridge of the Imams), which was the scene of the stampede that killed over a thousand Shi'ite pilgrims heading to Kadhimiya on the other side of the river in August 2005

The commercial Omar bin Abdul Aziz Street in Adhamiya

Notice the pockmarks from gunfire on almost every building

A street corner at the Raghiba Khatoun neighborhood in the Adhamiya district

Scenes from the Jami'a district and Al-Rabi' Street west of Baghdad:






Iraqi poets and writers gather at Mutannabi Street in mourning


At the scene of the Mutannabi Street bombing, Iraqi poet Jabbar Muhaibs put a wooden crate on his head to mourn the death of cultural life in Baghdad. "The light will not be lit here again," he said. Then, Muhaibs, a lecturer at the Baghdad Fine Arts Academy, leapt atop a burnt out car and recited: "What has happened to the poems and the poetry, all covered in blood and lying with the scattered souls and the bodies beneath the rubble?"



The Shahbandar Cafe near the Sarai Market at Mutannabi Street