A Quiet Filled With Wariness

Many in Baghdad's Tobji District Fear Their Troubles Aren't All Past

BAGHDAD -- Ali Basheer no longer avoids the market, where Shiite militiamen once preyed on Sunnis like him. He no longer instructs his 12-year-old son to lie about his name -- Omar, so clearly Sunni that only a year ago it could have gotten him kidnapped, even killed. And the graffiti outside their house that glorified Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia is scratched out.

But Basheer's fear has not entirely faded: On his wall, he still hangs a large poster of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's revered figures. He hopes it will win the protection of his Shiite neighbors.

"The situation can erupt at any moment," he explains.

Over the past three years, the lives of the residents of the Baghdad neighborhood of Tobji have closely tracked Iraq's own evolution -- from the throes of sectarian violence to a cautious reawakening ushered in by U.S. strategy, Iraqi political changes and intense security measures. The Mahdi Army has vanished from the streets, replaced by a wary calm, with last month's peaceful provincial elections the latest milestone in Tobji's transformation. Dozens of once-displaced Sunni families have returned to their homes.

But in this mixed enclave, viewed by many as a microcosm of Iraq's diversity, mistrust smolders beneath the surface, even as residents enjoy their new freedoms. The scars of sectarian strife are so deep that some residents say it will take years to return to the Iraq they remember, if ever. Iraq's political constellation is sharply realigning as a result of the elections, so residents are also bracing for new political and intra-sectarian conflicts as the U.S. withdraws.

"They are living together again, but the relationships between Sunnis and Shiites are not quite like before," said Haider al-Minshidawi, 40, a Shiite tribal leader in this neighborhood of cinder-block houses and mazes of narrow streets. "The tensions are still strong."

"The killings have ended in Tobji, but people still want revenge," said Khalid Jamal Hussein, 32, a Sunni pharmacist. "There's been too much bloodshed. Reconciliation will take a generation."

'Life Is Back to Normal'

At first glance, Tobji seems finally at peace.

Hashim Aziz can cut hair again without fear. When the Mahdi Army controlled the enclave, it banned Western-style haircuts, whipping disobedient young men and their barbers. Now, "everybody gets haircuts, any style they want," said Aziz, 53, flashing a smile, as the street outside pulsed with activity. "Life is back to normal."

Haircuts were only one of the ways the militia ruled Tobji, a working-class community of Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians that became a sectarian battlefield after the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra in February 2006. At first, the Mahdi Army was respected, viewed by most Shiites as their defense against Sunni insurgents. The militiamen controlled checkpoints and conducted night patrols.

But soon they demanded protection money and ran extortion rackets, while displacing Sunni families who had lived here for generations. Many fighters ran death squads, refusing to obey a cease-fire order Sadr imposed in August 2007 to improve his movement's image.

By last spring, the militiamen were on the run. Backed by U.S. troops, Iraqi forces were emboldened by government offensives against the militias in the southern city of Basra and in Baghdad's Sadr City district. American and Iraqi troops arrested many militia leaders; others fled Tobji.