Violence in Baghdad has taken a toll on small merchants

[Rose Siding]

McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD, Iraq - First to go was the pastry shop next door. That was early last spring. Since then, Alaa al Janabi, 46, has watched as Baghdad's epidemic of violence drained the life from his street, one store at a time......

The bakery across the street closed about six months ago during a wave of violence against bakers, which some say was sectarian but others say was directed against those supplying the army.

The pastry shop, owned by Janabi's friend, Abu Alaa, a Sunni, closed for the same reason.

In kind of a macabre echo of shopping fads, the death squads have hunted by specialties.

They killed hairdressers for supposedly promoting female vanity. Then came the butchers, guilty, apparently, of cutting meat in an offensive way. Then women's clothing shops were targeted. The killers said that they, too, were agents of vanity.

Barbers also are in the crosshairs. Some say it's because they spread too much information while chatting with customers; others say it's because some Islamic extremists believe that it's wrong to shave your beard. That's why Janabi's neighbor keeps secretive hours.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15725740.htm

Unbelievably sad :cry: