Barham Salih, Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Visits Al Mutanabi Street

As reported by Multi National Forces-Iraq, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih was on Al Mutanabi Street to unveil the start of the 180 day rehabilitation project to rebuild the historical Al Mutanabi Book Market. The market was located in eastern Baghdad. As the Deputy Prime Minister made his way through the street, people crowded the streets to try and see him.

While people waved and shouted to Salih, the Iraqi media crowded around trying to get comments and camera shots. Salih came to tell the people that they should be proud to be in Baghdad and proud to live in the oldest intellectual area of the city. He traveled with other individuals from parliament.

"The Baghdad people are the example, the potential," Salih said to a crowd of onlookers. "We have to be loyal to our people in each area and neighborhood, to bring Baghdad all the way up."

Assisted by troops from the 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, from Fort Bragg, N.C., currently attached to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, the Iraqi Army Soldiers were there to provide the security needed for Salih's visit.

Salih mentioned that 2008 would be an important time for economic construction of the services in Baghdad, and that the committee and the Prime Minister have already arranged for a budget for the needed services in Baghdad. He mentioned the March 2007 car bomb that was detonated in the historical market, and said that the feels for the people that were killed in the explosion. Grants given by Coalition forces helped many of the stores in the area around the market to open back up.

Salih talked about how the people of Iraq want to make Iraq a safe place and have the intellectual society once again grow in the streets. He said that the enemy that caused the bombing in the market and other destruction will be tracked down to help make the area safe again and to help bring it back to what it once was.