Life in Baghdad 'gets back to normal'

Baghdad: Life is gradually getting back to normal in the Iraqi capital after six days of sectarian tension due to the Samarra explosion.

The Iraqi authorities have lifted a curfew and other restrictions imposed on the city. Vehicles and pedestrians were back on the streets on Monday after the two-day curfew and a 24-hour vehicle ban imposed last week.

Citizens are still shocked at the Shiite-Sunni clashes, which were the first to happen in hundreds of years, and since the collapse of the former regime in April 2003. Fear of a sectarian or civil war is still felt strongly by the Iraqi people.

Uday Al Rawi, an IT engineer, said a sectarian war was a remote possibility as Iraqis are used to peaceful cohabitation between Sunnis and Shiites.

"At my office, there are both Sunnis and Shiites, and they are good friends," he told Gulf News.

Suha Al Khafaji, a teacher, said the bloody events Iraq has seen over the past two years might have created sectarian tension as most of the victims were Shiites, which raised great resentment among Shiites in the country.

More than 26 per cent of marriages in Iraq are between Sunni and Shiite partners, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Social Affairs, which limits the chances of a sectarian war.

Dhafer Al Aani, spokesman for the Iraqi Sunni Coalition, said, "It is wrong to say Shiites are the target of terrorist attacks. In the Khadhemya explosion, two Sunni ladies who were on the targeted bus died, even though it is a Shiite area."

The writer is a journalist based in Baghdad