- "Once a strip of night spots, fish restaurants and
bars with a reputation well-known outside Iraq's borders, Abu Nawas...
is now associated with garbage, boarded up homes and stores with 'for sale
or rent' signs."
-
-
- BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's U.S.
administrator marked the start of a major Muslim festival Sunday with a
message of hope, saying the people had "much to be thankful for."
-
- But his words rang hollow for many in the country on
one of the bloodiest days since Saddam Hussein's downfall.
-
- At least 56 were killed and more than 200 injured in
a pair of suicide bombings in the northern city of Irbil. At least two
Iraqis were injured when a roadside bomb went off, missing a U.S. military
convoy in Baghdad.
-
- Also, a U.S. soldier was killed and 12 were wounded in
a rocket attack near Balad. Several more Iraqis died well to the south
of the city raiding an ammo dump to scavenge munitions for scrap metal.
-
- And in the capital, Abu Nawas Street - a Tigris riverside
boulevard once the center of holiday merriment - stood almost deserted
on a day when it normally would be packed with revelers celebrating Eid
al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice.
-
- Blocked at three different locations by concrete blast
walls and barbed wire and crawling with armed guards protecting U.N. offices
and hotels, Abu Nawas has come to symbolize the hard times upon which the
city has fallen.
-
- Once a strip of night spots, fish restaurants and bars
with a reputation well-known outside Iraq's borders, Abu Nawas - named
after a famous 9th century Arab poet known for his love poems - is now
associated with garbage, boarded up homes and stores with "for sale
or rent" signs.
-
- "People are scared to come to Abu Nawas now,"
said Hazem Karim, who runs a liquor store on the street. "There are
too many men with guns."
-
- "In the old days, I used to sell 70 or 80 fishes
on a day like this," recalled Ali Abu Baraq, who owns a fish restaurant
on Abu Nawas. "I have sold five today and it's already 2 P.M."
-
- In a recorded Eid message broadcast on the coalition-run
Iraqiyah television network, administrator L. Paul Bremer told Iraqis "there
is much to be thankful for at this special Eid for Iraq."
-
- "Next Eid, Iraq will be a sovereign nation. Next
Eid, there will be more jobs. Next Eid, you will be more secure,"
Bremer said.
-
- Such upbeat assessments have been a hallmark of coalition
statements, something that's likely to intensify as the November U.S. presidential
elections draw closer and Washington's policies in Iraq come under more
scrutiny by President Bush's Democratic rivals.
-
- Coalition spokesman Dan Senor, speaking in a news briefing
hours after the devastating bombings in Irbil, sounded another positive
note.
-
- Bremer's strategy at this point, he said, was to "demonstrate
resolve" and press ahead with the political and economic empowerment
of Iraqis in order to isolate the terrorists.
-
- "We continue to show resilience," he said,
warning that forces inside and outside Iraq will try to undermine the process
with the approach of the June 30 deadline for handing over power to an
Iraqi government.
-
- "We are focused like a laser beam on the June 30
handover of sovereignty," Senor said.
-
- Mohsen Abdel-Hamid, a Sunni Muslim politician who took
over Sunday as president of the Iraqi Governing Council, had a different
take on today's Iraq.
-
- "Today, we live a major catastrophe," Abdel-Hamid,
leader of the fundamentalist Islamic party, told a congregation at a Baghdad
mosque. "Our infrastructure has been destroyed and our country has
been humiliated by 35 years of terrorism, launching wars on neighbors and
filling large graves with the bodies of the nation's youth."
-
- Life didn't look so good either for Imad Hadi, 28. Hadi
and his family were driving to the Shiite Muslim city of Karbala to spend
the four-day holiday when the roadside bomb exploded.
-
- Hadi and another driver swerved to avoid the blast and
collided. None of them were injured, although two other Iraqis in the area
were hurt.
-
- "This spoiled the Eid for us, but the security situation
as a whole has disrupted our lives," Hadi said. "None of us was
hurt, but we are all badly shaken. We cannot go anywhere these days."
-
- Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
-
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