Battered Baghdad being transformed

BAGHDAD: Patrick Walters | September 03, 2008 BAGHDAD in 2008 is a city tantalisingly close to a genuine transformation. The first impression after an absence of two years is the stunning reduction in the appalling level of violence that had torn the city's suburbs apart over the past four years. A relative calm has now descended. On the day I arrived, there was not a single serious security incident across the whole of Baghdad. As Ramadan begins, it seems Iraqis are increasingly weary with war and yearn for a more normal life. Last week, 60,000 people crowded into a city stadium for a major football match. Rocket attacks on the giant US base at Camp Victory, next to the airport, are far less frequent than two years ago. The run into town from Baghdad's international airport on Route Irish - once famously dubbed "the most dangerous road in the world" - is fast becoming a routine trip. The threat from improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs, remains but thanks to sophisticated counter-measures, better roads and a far more capable Iraqi army, the number of lethal attacks has been hugely reduced. New overpasses now jump across Route Irish and tens of millions are being spent upgrading the airport highway. If the passengers on my US mine-resistant, ambush-protected armoured transport into the heart of Baghdad yesterday were apprehensive, they didn't show it. The armoured truck is hardly an ordinary taxi but one of my companions busied herself on her BlackBerry while another snoozed all the way. Construction is booming inside Baghdad's international zone, dominated by the enormous new US embassy stretching more than a kilometre along the banks of the Tigris. For once, the ubiquitous T-walls - the concrete barriers that separate the international zone from the rest of the city - are not the centre of attention. New office blocks and a five-star hotel are springing up and neighbourhood markets are booming. As the appalling level of sectarian violence has fallen away, so local governments are gradually restoring services: picking up garbage and restoring footpaths and median strips. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier yesterday, a cheerful Iraqi soldier showed us around. Over much of central Baghdad, the Iraqi security forces are firmly in control. There's still so much that can go awry but as the searing heat of a Baghdad summer gradually subsides, there is a palpable sense that the old city is coming to life again.