After the bombs, lingering car wrecks haunt Iraqis

Baghdad: Shells of bombed and burnt-out cars litter the streets of Baghdad as a daily reminder of the violence that residents would rather forget.

In a central Baghdad parking lot, dozens of cars in various stages of destruction have been dumped at the site, across the road from a school in the Salhiya district.

"Look at this ugly sight. How can someone forget the war when he sees these cars, their destruction, the blackness?" asked Fayez Saddiq Ahmad.

Some of the cars are almost intact, their windows blown out and black marks showing where an explosion may have struck. Others are just charred shells.

"This has a psychological impact on people. When they see it they remember the fear, terror, death," said Wathiq Adnan. a resident.

"We want to remove this image and replace it with something more optimistic and joyful, so people can forget what is happening," Adnan said.

The city municipality says 1,500 car wrecks have been removed so far this year, but admits that many are still scattered around or abandoned by the side of the road.

Some become playgrounds for young children, who clamber through the windscreen frames, play with the doors and jump from rusty roofs onto the bonnets.

"This is a very painful situation. We don't ever want to see it," said resident Mazen Kazem, calling on authorities to clear the cars and plant trees and flowers in their place.