Rutbah, reclaimed: Residents say peace, normalcy have returned to a former al-Qaida haven

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Two men sit at a food stand in the market in downtown Rutbah, which U.S. Marines say used to be full of insurgents. The city is mostly calm now, with little insurgent violence.


Rutbah, reclaimed: Residents say peace, normalcy have returned to a former al-Qaida haven
By Ashley Rowland, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, February 26, 2009

RUTBAH, Iraq — It was midday on a Friday when police found a box, packed with cookies and a bomb, in a dirt alley across the street from the neighborhood mosque around the corner from Waid al Jyburi’s tiny snack shop.

Planted in front of an Iraqi policeman’s house, the bomb was designed to blow up as soon as someone — maybe one of the many children playing in the streets — reached in for a cookie.

Three months later, the bomb is a distant memory to al Jyburi. He doesn’t know who set it up, and doesn’t worry about it. He believes the insurgents are gone from Rutbah, in western Anbar province.

"Our city is clean, not like before," he said.

Compared to the first four years of the war, when Rutbah was a haven for al-Qaida in Iraq and foreign fighters, it is.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60981