Iraq's years of carnage still engrained in Baghdad streets
Associated Press photographer Hadi Mizban has covered 20 years of turmoil since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq BAGHDAD -- There are places around Baghdad where I’ll sometimes say a silent prayer for the dead when I pass — on certain residential streets , at a particular restaurant, in a square where minibuses gather. Today, people go about their daily business in these places, perhaps no longer thinking of the horror that took place years ago right where they are walking. For me, each site has become indelibly linked to the carnage I saw and the pain people suffered there. As an Associated Press photographer, I covered 20 years of turmoil since the U.S.-led invasion of my country. At the height of the sectarian butchery following the invasion, I and other photographers rushed to the scenes of suicide bombings, rocket strikes and shootings around Baghdad nearly every day, sometimes multiple times a day. Iraqis today remember the pervasive fear of that era, but with so many bombings, the ...