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Iraq: Ten years on

Despite billions of dollars in spending, many Iraqis say they aren’t better off after the US invasion.

Camp Bucca near Basra. Once a sprawling US military prison, it is now a hotel for foreign business visitors. A room costs more than $200/night.

By Ayman Oghanna

Published On 20 Mar 2013

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Nithal Hussein, 19, works in a store renting wedding dresses in Sadr City. This scene would have been hard to find a year ago when Sadrist militiamen enforced a social conservatism, shutting stores and hair stylists.
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A girl cries after her mother died in a car bomb explosion at the Hamra hotel on Christmas Day, 2009. Devastating bomb attacks struck four hotels around the Iraqi capital, killing at least 37 in the Iraqi capital in just one day.
A young couple in their bumper car in "Basraland" - a recently opened amusement park in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Iraq(***)s second city is attracting development and foreign investment and has become relatively stable. Security, however, has come at the expense of cosmopolitanism. It is now almost exclusively Shia - its Sunni, Christian, and Mandaean communities have dwindled to near zero.
In April 2011, Iraqi military officers such as Lt Gen Mohammed Jawad Huwaidi watched over an Iraqi armed forces training exercise in southern Iraq. One of the US military(***)s biggest tasks in Iraq has been to oversee the training of Iraqi security forces.
A family watches a new amusement park ride in Baghdad(***)s Zawra Park.
Ashura is a day of mourning observed by Shia Muslims, commemorating the death of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the prophet Mohammed. Husayn is believed to be buried here in Karbala, where some mourners practice a ritual self-flagellation on the day.
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Baghdadis enjoy a show in October 2010 at the New Vision 4D cinema in Baghdad(***)s Zayuna district. The brain child of two Iraqi entrepreneurs who imported the equipment from Canada, the cinema is the first of its kind in Iraq. As well as 3D films, moviegoers experience physical effects such as wind, spraying water and moving seats during shows.
An Iraqi officer photographs protesters at a demonstration in Ramadi.
"Honour" killings and related suicides remain a prominent source of family tragedy in northern Iraq. In Sinjar, a town recently scarred by a rise in suicides, Abdullah Hassan(***)s daughter is thought to have taken her own life with a knife. Accused of her murder, his sons have since been imprisoned.
Men drink alcohol, smoke nargelieh, and watch belly dancers in Abu Nuwass, Baghdad s Lower East Side. Abu Nuwass is a tree-lined street filled with seedy nightclubs, fish restaurants and alcohol. Business is booming.
An outdoor movie projection In central Baghdad.
The fire ceremony during the Shia commemoration of Ashura in Najaf, a seat of Shia Islam for centuries. Maligned under the rule of Sunni Muslim rulers, the city(***)s revival into a boom city today is a story of shifting fortunes, as Shia communities regain power and influence across the country.
Domuz refugee camp near Dohuk in Iraq(***)s Kurdistan Region, a tent city of nearly 25,000 people, where about 150 to 200 new refugees arrive from Syria each day. This photo shows the camp on October 1, 2012.