We grew up together in this country.

There were no problems between us before.

We will never let the terrorists achieve their goal.

I provide service for the pilgrims celebrating Imam Hussein.

I hand out teas and cakes Everything is free and it’s going to last for 30 days, until the pilgrimage to Hussein’s tomb.

A tribute to Imam Hussain, who was killed in 680 AD by the Sunnis.

During Ashura rituals, Shiites should bleed.

I do not fear death! My life would be a sacrifice for Hussein.

We are here to sacrifice ourselves for him.

It’s a mark of respect for the Imam Hussein.

At this time of religious celebration, selling alcohol is even riskier than usual.

The sale and purchase of alcohol is forbidden, so we film on a hidden camera.

This clandestine shop has been attacked several times by Shia and Sunni militias.

Hello, I’d like to buy some wine.

Come in and see what we have.

What kind of red wine do you have? Come and take a look.

We have several kinds of wine.

For example, we have this one and this one.

French wine and Lebanese wine at different prices.

The first bottle there is 12 euros.

The second is 10 euros Do you want a bottle or a box? I’ll take a box of Lebanese wine and a box of French wine.

They have a bit of everything, Portuguese or Lebanese beer at one euro a bottle.

Despite the risk of terrorist attacks.

Isn’t it dangerous to come and buy alcohol? Of course it is, but this is the only shop open.

I’ve come a long way to buy alcohol.

Is it not too dangerous to sell alcohol at the moment? Yes, it is.

They killed two shop assistants a week ago.

Two sellers? Yes, and one of them was one of our salesmen.

He was killed two days ago.

He ran a grocery shop and when they found out that he was selling alcohol in secret, they killed him.

We leave this clandestine shop for another terrorist’s prime target, the Al-Mutanabi book market.

This is a meeting place for Iraqi intellectuals, and the army keeps a close eye on it.

It’s to prevent attacks, but also to keep track of opposition members who usually meet there, secularists and especially communists.

At the entrance to the market is the Al-Shabanda Cafe, the most famous in Iraq.

The entire history of the country is depicted on its walls.

Documents that customers have carefully entrusted to Mohamed.

He’s been the owner since 1963.

People come from far and wide to talk politics while slowly smoking shisha or drinking this particularly sweet tea.

Mohamed is keen to show us five photos on the wall.

These are photos of my 5 sons.

They died on 5th of March It was a car bomb.

I was here and the car that exploded was there, right next to me.

All the walls of the café collapsed.

I heard my sons screaming, but I couldn’t do anything for them.

They were all under the rubble.

Since that day, I’ve lost the will to live.

My life has been shattered by their deaths.

All I want is to die as soon as possible and join them in heaven.

Mohamed welcomes everyone, even woman who are rarely seen in public places.

Sama is poet and writer, At the café, she feels respected.

I’m not afraid to come here.

Al-Mutanabbi Street is a sacred street for Iraqis.

The people who come here are intellectuals.

For Iraqis.

.

The people who come here are intellectuals.

They are cultured, respectful and concerned about the worsening situation in the country.

In all sincerity, I don’t see any improvement on the horizon.

One week it’s fairly calm and the next week it’s catastrophic.

You can’t even walk in the streets.

There is no security.

Baghdadi people have trouble understanding who is in charge of security, whether it is whether it’s the army, the militias or the police.

Some people almost miss the days of Saddam Hussein.

Before the war in 2003, to arrest someone, the police would first inquire about the person at the town hall.

Then they would arrest them with the district administrative officer and all residents would know who the person was.

Today, all this procedure has disappeared and we no longer know who is arresting whom.

That’s why I’ve replaced the doorbell in my house with a surveillance camera, because I don’t know whether the person ringing the bell is a policeman or a criminal who wants to kill me and my family.

So I look through the camera and if I don’t know them, I don’t open the door.

We’re heading to the semi district, our guide is in this white car.

We arrive in front of walls full of bullet wholes.

He’s taking a big risk, just by showing it to us.

Our translator explains why.

It’s very tricky to film here.

Here you can see a trace of mortar The government considers everyone looking for evidence of violence as being against the government, because they know they are incapable of controlling the country.

If they ever find out that he’s shown us these places, what happens to him? As soon as the government finds out, they search for the person who brought them there and arrest them.

So showing a small mark from a mortar blast here means prison time? Yes.

We are in the Dora neighborhood.

It’s a Sunni district infiltrated by Al Qaeda.

It’s impossible to enter without being protected.

Our guide Youssef is the local leader of the Sawa militia, 90,000 anti-al-Qaeda Sunni fighters.

This is one of our roadblocks.

We have two fighters here.

This is their bedroom, this is where they sleep.

There’s no light because we have no electricity today.

This is the 806 district roadblock where five fighters take turns day and night.

I’ve got another eight at the roadblock at the entrance to the district.

I also have my two bodyguards with me at all times.

Keep a close eye on this side of the street as usual and stay very vigilant.

You Omar, keep an eye on the other side.

But Yusuf and the Sawa accepted money and weapons both from the Shiites and from the United States.

Al-Qaeda has therefore decided to eliminate them, even though they are both Sunni.

They are constantly threatening us.

They put bombs under our cars and they often attack us, even in the middle of the night.

Two days ago, in the street just behind us, a terrorist blew up a car.

en The whole family inside died.

Contrary to the reassuring rhetoric of the Shia government, al-Qaeda is present everywhere in Iraq, even right in the center of Baghdad.

Of course Al-Qaeda is in most of our neighbourhoods.

Al-Qaeda carries out its attacks very quietly.

In fact, nobody really monitors them.

Before, my Sahwa men were everywhere in the city At that time it was impossible for al-Qaeda terrorists to make bombs and plant them.

But now they do what they want.

They kidnapped my older brother in 2007 in his car, in the middle of the street.

Since then, I haven’t heard a thing.

I don’t know whether he’s dead or alive.

This sign is an example of our campaign against terrorism.

Hello! Happy New Year, best wishes.

All the best.

Happy New Year to you, best wishes.

And Happy New Year to you too! The whole family wishes each other a happy new year around a cake.

They wish for peace and the return to power for the Sunni minority who ruled Iraq with an iron fist under Saddam.

They sing for a better future without forgetting the devastating past.

One morning, my brother-in-law went to buy bread for his family.

When he got to the bakery a car stopped next to him.

Three armed people got out.

First they tried to arrest him.

Then they grabbed him and tried to shove him into the boot of their car, but he resisted.

So they shot him in front of everyone with a silenced pistol.

It really hurts my heart when I look at his photo.

He really was just trying to be nice to people from the Shia community.

He would even pray with them in their mosque And in the end, what did they do? They betrayed him.

They killed him They betrayed him.

They killed him.

Christians are also victims of this war.

Ten years ago, there were more than a million Christians in Iraq.

Today, there are less than 400,000.

Monsignor Pio is their spokesman.

In recent years, 61 churches have been attacked, including the massacre in Karada in 2010, when 47 people were killed in the middle of mass.

Monsignor Pio survived.

He took his photos and turned them into this book.

These are photos of the martyrs in the church.

The church was attacked by terrorists.

There were five of them.

Two had died before entering the church.

And the three were inside the church itself.

There’s the priest here.

You will see today that families and relatives of the martyrs will be present at prayer.

Together with the parents of little Adam.

He was between 3 and 4 years old.

They will be at the prayer today.

Did the terrorists blow themselves up in the church? Of course they did.

What do terrorists do? They pray and kill people.

Especially Christians.

Why? No one knows.

Names of the 47 victims are read out at each mass by their families.

In the face of what is being done to Christians in the Middle East, in the face of oppression, injustice and blasphemy, We need to believe even more in God.

An even stronger belief, an even deeper belief.

One of the worshippers is Jalal.

His brother and nephew died in the attack.

I will never leave Iraq.

I was born here, I studied here, I got married here, I lived through all the wars.

No, I’m not leaving even though 37 members of my family and friends have left.

I’m not leaving.

Explain to me how the terrorists got into Karrada to blow themselves up.

Several members of the Iraqi government live there.

How did the terrorists get in with their explosives, weapons, grenades, rocket launchers, Kalashnikovs? How did they do that? How do cars packed with explosives get through the hundreds of roadblocks in Baghdad several times a day? To find out, we meet up with Colonel Khaled of the 17th Infantry Division.

As is often the case, he is setting up an improvised checkpoint.

When terrorists want to carry out an attack in the city, to get their car bomb and their suicide bomber through, they don’t take the main road, they take secondary roads.

One of the missions of our regiment is to set up temporary roadblocks for about two hours.

We go into the side streets to disrupt and surprise the terrorists.

If they find out there’s a roadblock in that street, it forces them to call off their attacks.

On the days when we set up roadblocks, there are very few attacks.

I support the soldiers, I agree with them to set up these roadblocks, it’s for our safety.

It doesn’t bother me, it’s to protect us from car bombs and suicide bombers.

We need to set up several roadblocks all over the city to protect everyone.

The problem is that every vehicle is controlled by this totally useless gadget.

This device detects bombs, explosives and TNT in car bombs.

This is a test for all types of explosives.

Because the together by a Brit sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud.

He bought it for 10 euros and sold it for 23,000 euros to around 40 countries, including Iraq, which refuses to part with it.

There is no effective system for detecting explosives in Iraq.

An armoured convoy is therefore the best protection, particularly for business leaders.

We arrive at the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce.

The building looks abandoned.

There are even chickens pecking in the entrance hall.

Rajab represents 23,000 businessmen.

He is developing Iraq’s very weak private sector and fights widespread corruption.

Iraq is the third most corrupt country in the world after Somalia and Burma.

There is an unfair distribution of contracts for the reconstruction of the country.

These contracts are conveniently always reserved for specific investors, often the same ones.

Yet there are many Iraqi businessmen and companies capable and.

competent for these major projects.

But their chances of getting these contracts are virtually nil.

This is really not normal.

All because of bribes and family connections? Yes, exactly.

Business owners are equally afraid of being kidnapped for ransom It happens about 15 times a month.

Often in the middle of the street.

Roger was personally gone through an ordeal My son was kidnapped near one of my factories.

The kidnappers called me on the phone.

They made me listen to what they were doing.

They were torturing my son to make me pay.

After negotiations, I agreed.

I paid them.

It was 30,000 euros.

I paid and my son was released the same evening.

For fear of reprisals, very few people dared speak out publicly.

Ali is one of them.

His photo is everywhere in Baghdad.

He set up an association to fight terrorism.

He had several good reasons for doing so.

Three of his cousins died in bombings, one of his brothers died in the Iran-Iraq war, and the other was e******* under Saddam Hussein.

It is our message to all Iraqis.

Several similar ones have been put up in the streets of Baghdad.

The campaign slogan is ‘I am against the terrorism’, written in Arabic and English.

But the most important thing is the phrase ‘Say no to terrorism’.

It is written in the four languages spoken in Iraq.

Arabic, Kurdish, in Syriac, the Christian language, and in Cuneiform, the ancient Iraqi language.

To help develop his organization, Ali travels around Baghdad Hundreds of kilometers by car, fearing an attack at every turn.

One of the biggest problems is traffic jams.

Karrada street, where we are at the moment, there have been more than 35 terrorist attacks by suicide bombers and car bombs.

The security forces have to take this into account.

For example, on Karrada street, where we are at the moment, there have been more than 35 terrorist attacks All done by suicide bombers and car bombs.

Hello, sorry to bother you.

It’s for an Iraqi campaign.

I’m Iraqi, I’m against terrorism.

We are Iraqis and we must all shout out with one voice that we are all against terrorism.

But where is the Iraqi government? One of the aims of this campaign is to get rid of this government.

It’s a good initiative.

I support it.

I’m an engineer.

I’m working to build my future.

I don’t want to die because of a mad terrorist or a politician who is “doing everything to keep his place in power.

The government has to react, but all state institutions are infiltrated by terrorists.

I agree with you, but I’m not just talking about the government.

with agree you, I’m talking about society.

What should society do about violence? As citizens, we have to unite, put aside ethnic problems, and make concessions.

He’s trying to unite the iraqi peole to prepare for a better futur.

This campaign is important.

It must reach all the regions of Iraq.

It should also be broadcast on television, on Facebook, on YouTube, and, of course, in schools.

To explain to children what terrorism is and how we can fight against it.

Because our children are the future of this country.

We do not want them to suffer as we have suffered.

Ali knows that the task of eradicating terrorism and reconciling communities is immense.

With 800 deaths a month and a country that is yet to be completely rebuilt, what does the future hold for Iraq? What does the future hold for Hamir, the Shiite who trembles with fear when his children go to school? How about Salim, the Sunni who mourns his brother-in-law who was killed by the Shiites? What is the future for Monsignor Pio and the terrorized Christians fleeing the country? And what about Colonel Khaled, whose 11 relatives were e******* because he was a soldier? What does the future hold for Mohammed, whose five sons died before his eyes? After 23 years under Saddam Hussein, 10 years of war, and two years since the departure of the Americans, Iraqis are surviving day by day at the mercy of car bombs that could explode anywhere, at any time.

 

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