U.S., Iraqi forces strive to maintain gains in key Jamilla marketplace

[unhappycamper]

U.S., Iraqi forces strive to maintain gains in key Jamilla marketplace
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, December 15, 2008

BAGHDAD — A person could be forgiven if his or her eyes start to glaze over when they hear about the Jamilla market improvements. The Army has dozens, perhaps hundreds, of market-improvement projects across Iraq — all important, all similar.

Walk around Jamilla, though, and you get a sense of what makes Baghdad’s largest market especially crucial. Tractor-trailers can back into most Jamilla stalls, whereas at other markets vendors have man-sized kiosks. Bags of rice, flour and other foods imported from Syria and Iran are stacked two stories high. When Jamilla has problems, prices go up everywhere in Baghdad.

"Most of the businesses here are not retail, but wholesale," said Staff Sgt. Christopher Dyer, a platoon sergeant with Company A, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment. "All the fruit, soda, chips — everything — comes right through here."

Jamilla’s location is most important. The market sits squarely in the Shiite slum of Sadr City. With the influence of Sunni extremists like al-Qaida waning, Baghdad’s Sadr City district is perhaps key to the future of Iraq’s security.

That point was reinforced Friday when insurgents launched a failed roadside bomb attack on an American convoy in Jamilla. The area had gone a few months without an attack, which most units would consider a success.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59413