Public sports in post-war Iraq

2013-03-29 17:11

By (chinadaily.com.cn)

Public sports and recreation in Iraq mostly disappeared during the conflict, but slowly it is returning to the war-torn country.

An Iraqi boy plays in front of flames blocking a street in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City neighborhood, on May 18, 2004. Residents of Sadr City blocked many roads in the city in a bid to prevent US military vehicles from entering the poor slums. One Iraqi was killed and five wounded in the holy city of Karbala in night-time clashes between coalition troops and the militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. [Photo/icpress]

Fifteen-year-old Hoda lifts weights at a gym in Sadr City, on Sept 20, 2012. A conservative, Shiite-majority area of Baghdad serves as the unlikely base for Iraq's first female national weightlifting team, which is due to compete in Morocco on Sept 27. [Photo/icpress]