Resettlement comes with deadly risks

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Broken windows give a clear view of Haider Hassan cleaning up debris from a bomb explosion that rocked his home in Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood. A man who was living in the home illegally is thought to have planted the bomb because he was mad Hassan’s family returned to the area.


Resettlement comes with deadly risks
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, September 30, 2008

BAGHDAD — As bombs go, it was a small one — only about five pounds of homemade explosive.

Ali Hassan Ali, a man in the home that was targeted, says the bomb was the width of his palm and a little bit longer than his hand. It was black and it was ticking.

Such bombs are usually only intended to scare the families moving back in, but this one did its share of damage. The explosion warped the metal on the bottom of the front gate and shattered all the glass in the kitchen. Haider Hassan, the son of one of the men in the home, cleaned the debris while U.S. soldiers collected information. Haider cut his finger on the broken glass.

It was the only blood the attacker drew.

Ali, Hassan and their relatives just moved back to Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood. The area has been getting safer for those who fled the area’s sectarian violence — especially Shiites in this Sunni-dominated neighborhood.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57766