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Global News Portfolio: Iraq: Iraq Rebuilding

  • A crane worker stands on top of a blast wall while helping to move it to open al Kifah Street and the border between the Sunni and Shia parts of the Fadhil neighborhood of Baghdad. The Fadhil neighborhood was a center of sectarian and militia activity but security has improved in the neighborhood enough to take down the blast wall on the main street that is traditionally a shopping area for basic industrial goods. Members of the Sunni and Shiite Awakening councils, Iraqi military and U.S. Army came together after iftar, the meal breaking the fast during the month of Ramadan, to celebrate the event.
  • Dressed in their holiday best, Iraqis enjoy Abu Nuwas Park along the Tigris River in Baghdad during Eid Al-Fitr on October 3, 2008 in Baghdad, Iraq. Because of the improved security situation, Iraqis in large numbers were able to celebrate the Eid Al-Fitr holiday with family picnics and walks along the riverfront situated opposite the American Embassy and Iraqi government compound know as the Green Zone in Baghdad. Eid Al-Fitr marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
  • The crown jewel of the al Moosawi Mosque is this massive handmade, one and a quarter ton, crystal chandelier that was paid for and built by members of the mosque. Abdul Redha al Moosawi, right, who represents the al Moosawi Group, gives a tour to attorney, Dr. Florian Amereller, left, and General Manager Wolf-Michael Baeume of MDC, center in background, at the al Moosawi Mosque. The al Moosawi Group, a Shiite tribal congregation that has succeeded in maintaining successful businesses by staying out of politics during the ravaging civil war in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion, represents 16 different businesses that include a hospital, real estate, and oil services companies. German attorney, Dr. Florian Amereller, and experienced General Manager Wolf-Michael Baeume are partners with Iraqi businessman Johny Paulus in the MDC Iraq Development Company GmbH. The newly minted partnership is the one of the first forays back into Iraq’s business market after the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The company is working with the German government’s liaison office for Industry and Commerce who operates out of a room in MDC’s office. The focus of the business is on serving the oil and gas, electricity, water, medical and construction needs of Iraq with high quality German products and experience.
  • People are reflected in a mirror of a roadside sunglasses vendor at Sulaymaniyah’s main market in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region. More merchandise is available for sale in Iraq’s Kurdish region since its border with Turkey provides a safe entry to the area. As the rest of Iraq struggles with sectarian killings and an insurgency, the mostly homogenous Kurdish north prospers and benefits from reconstruction projects. Since the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds have sought to have an autonomous country, and still today many Kurds express their desire to make themselves independent from the troubles of greater Iraq.
  • Empty Coke bottles sit on a break table next to a table of Iraqi dinars in the bank vault at the Iraq Middle East Investment Bank on Monday July 10, 2006. The rate of inflation in Iraq was recorded at 3.60 percent in 2012. That's progress compared to the all-time high of 17.2 percent reached in August of 2006.
  • Kris Murthi, a project manager for Kellogg Brown and Root, explains the operation of a South Oil Company gas oil separation plant where crude oil is piped from wells in the South Ramallah oil fields. In 2012 Iraq became one of the premier producers in OPEC with production reaching 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. Iraq sits on the world's third largest known oil reserves.
  • Iraqi Policeman Mohammad Nassir stands guard under one of the main bridges leading into the city of Nasiriyah over the Euphrates River. The bridges were key to attacking American forces in order to get their heavy tanks and armor over the river. Nassir was a child when the Americans first came in but he remembers seeing the Americans attacking several of the houses near the bridge on March 23, 2003. He now works as an Iraq Policeman guarding the bridge and watching for suicide bombers entering the city.
  • A women kisses a child as the family departs a polling site of the provincial elections in the city of Baquba on January 1, 2009. Iraq will hold provincial elections in April 2013 in all provinces except for the disputed oil rich city of Kirkuk. Iraq's government has continued to lead the country after the American departure although discontent and protests are on the rise.
  • Shiite worshipers perform the evening prayer at the holy shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq on Thursday January 6, 2010. In 2004 Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army took over the shrine and fought American forces in the city in a bloody battle. Residents of the city have mixed feelings about al-Sadr's return. Anti-American cleric al-Sadr led Shiite resistance fighters against the American-led forces in several bloody battles before fleeing into exile in Iran over four years ago. His return to Iraq is being welcomed by his supporters.
  • People find protection from the 100-degree heat as they watch over 70,000 unarmed men loyal to the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr march in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, on Thursday May 26, 2011.
  • Mohammed Qusai, left, gets instructions from his father on how to operate the buttons on a coin operated helicopter ride at the tent market in downtown Basra, Iraq on August 21, 2010. Helicopters have been a constant reminder of war for Iraqis as Saddam Hussein used them under the treaty of the 1991 Gulf War and terrorized Shiite resistance fighters who rose up during the Gulf War thinking the Americans would overthrow Saddam. Since 2003 American and British helicopters have been the main transportation of foreign soldiers around the country because the roads proved too dangerous. The current Iraqi Air Force has around 150 helicopters and plans to buy American made F-16 fighter jets.
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