BAGHDAD (AFP) — The gaudy orange, green and purple electronic palm trees flashing in the dark alert you that you're getting close to one of Baghdad's bustling nightspots.
The palms, like a mirage, can be seen from way down the darkened streets, lighting up the night and giving a promise of normality in the otherwise bleak and deserted capital, ravaged by four years of insurgency and sectarian strife.
And then, suddenly, you've arrived and the mirage has become an oasis of generator-driven light; a colourful jumble of trendy juice bars, cosy restaurants, fruit shops, roadside eateries and fish vendors, where children play, families dine and lovers meet.
"Even two or three months ago we would have been afraid to come here at night," said 20-year-old Hussein Salah, an off-duty soldier, slurping a milkshake with his wife, Shihad, at the Mishmesha (apricot) juice bar in Baghdad's relatively safe Karrada suburb.
"Now we sometimes sit outside here till one or two in the morning. It is quite safe. The security situation is vastly improved," said Salah, the orange light from a nearby flashing palm alternatively brightening and dimming his clean-shaven face.
Declines in Iraqi civilian casualties and a sharp reduction in bomb and mortar attacks have sparked optimism that the capital is at last starting to revive.
US military commanders attribute the fall in violence to a "surge" of American troops on the ground, their decision to set up small military posts in neighbourhoods, and the increasing number of Iraqis joining US forces in anti-insurgent alliances.
Residents interviewed by AFP on the streets of Karrada were adamant, however, that the Iraqi government and the Iraqi army are entirely responsible for reining in sectarian bloodletting unleashed by the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February 2006.
"We have the Iraqi government to thank for the peace in our neighbourhood," said fishmonger Muqdad Mohammed, 38, smoking "mazguf" (carp) -- a Baghdad delicacy -- netted in the Tigris river on an open fire at a street corner.
-- "Things are normal here" now --
"As you can see, things are normal here. It's after eight o'clock and the streets are still full," he added, pointing to the groups of people, families and even single women wearing headscarves strolling up and down the road.
"Six months ago we had to close up by 7 pm, now we stay open till 9 or even later," he said, as live carp flapped about in a tank inside his small stall plastered with pictures of Iraqi Shiite clerics.
In those days, Mohammed considered himself fortunate if he sold 10 fish daily. "Now we sell between 25 and 30 every day. Business is booming."
Up the road butcher Halim Sayed Ahmed, an Egyptian with a round face and hint of a moustache, is counting his lucky stars he didn't follow the rest of his family to Cairo when the conflict began ripping Baghdad apart two years ago.
"The butchery is thriving. Sales are up 80 percent compared to the beginning of the year" when violence was at its peak, he said between mounds of freshly cut chicken pieces, mincemeat and mutton.
"I have been here 30 years and I love Baghdad," he said. "Now that the security situation is improving, my family can return."
Seated on a stool manning the cash till at another juice bar further up the road, Aziz, who would give only one name, said he had just returned from a year in Syria, where he had fled to escape the violence.
"I was shocked when I returned to see how much things had changed," he said. "It's like a different city. Things are so good that I now think it would be possible for me to get married."
Haider Naja shuts up his small cluttered stationery shop around 11 most nights, not through lack of customers at that hour but because he needs time to run his real business -- importing leather goods from China.
The shop, he explains with a sly grin, is just a front so that militiamen and criminals won't think he has too much money and abduct him for ransom.
His real occupation, says the slender trader with slicked back hair, is his import business which nets him thousands of dollars a load.
"There is huge demand for my products -- especially shoes. Iraqis love any new styles, and they have the money to pay for them. An entire container arrived for me last Friday. By Saturday I had sold everything in my outlets at various Baghdad markets."
While some suburbs are even more lively than Karrada after dark, said Naja, others -- such as Al-Amiriya in the west and Al-Dora in the south -- are still haunted by militiamen and insurgents.
"There the shops close at 5 pm and everyone goes home and locks the doors. Here in Karrada it is different."
Leaving Karrada's brightly-lit enclave, which stretches more than a kilometre (mile), it's back once more into dark streets with bands of roaming dogs, long rows of ugly blast walls and endless police checkpoints.
Around a corner, the street is suddenly filled with a few dozen aggressive-looking youths, some running hard going on the attack, others taking up defensive positions.
It's after 10:30 pm. The streets are almost empty of traffic. Perfect time for a game of football.
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