BAGHDAD — Car bombings and killings have cast a shadow on Ramadan here since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. But now, with a decline in the bloodshed, ordinary Iraqis are hoping Islam’s holiest month will be reminiscent of calmer times.
This year, people are looking forward to more relaxed nights with family and friends. A total of 430 Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police nationwide were killed last month, compared with 1,860 during the same period last year.
Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset in Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar calendar. The faithful mark the period when the Prophet Muhammad is said to have received the first revelation of the Koran. The holiday began Monday for the country’s Sunni Arabs and Tuesday for the Shiite majority, based on when each sect’s senior clerics received reports of the sighting of the crescent moon.
“This Ramadan, we have confidence in our government,” said Akram Nouri, a political science professor at Baghdad University. “The displaced are returning to their homes.”
But Tuesday was not free of violence. Four civilians and a soldier were killed in three bombings around the capital. In Mosul, a truck bomb targeting an Iraqi army convoy claimed the lives of four civilians. A second car bomb in the afternoon killed a soldier in the city.
The U.S. military reported the death of a U.S. soldier in a non-combat-related incident Tuesday.
