Shiite militia group in controlof Baghdad neighborhood

BAGHDAD -- The street market bustles in the early mornings and late afternoons as shoppers come out to buy fruit, bread, clothes and toys. Late into the hot summer nights, whole families gather to eat grilled kebabs at tiny stalls, their small children shrieking as they play tag.

The Hurriyah neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, gripped by a spasm of deadly ethnic violence a year ago, has grown markedly calmer over the past eight months. It is now the kind of area that both U.S. and Iraqi officials point to when they cite progress at stabilizing Baghdad.

But only Shiites are welcome -- or safe -- in Hurriyah these days. And neither Iraq's government nor U.S. or Iraqi security forces are truly in control.

Instead, the Mahdi Army militia runs this area as it does others across Baghdad -- manning checkpoints, collecting rental fees for apartments, licensing bus drivers, mediating family fights and even handing out gas for cooking.

The U.S. Army still runs regular patrols, sometimes on foot, sometimes by Humvee. And Iraqi police, on the streets, are nominally in charge.

But underneath the calm, an armed group hostile to the United States holds a firm grip on power. Some fear the Mahdi Army is simply biding its time.

The Mahdi Army's control here has its roots in the ferocious wave of ethnic hatred that rippled across an arc of formerly mixed Baghdad neighborhoods last summer and fall.

Until late 2005, Hurriyah was a relatively safe, working-class community of Sunnis and Shiites. The first signs of trouble began that year, when gunmen from a Sunni extremist group began abducting and killing Shiites. In early 2006, Mahdi Army militiamen set up an office in Hurriyah's outdoor market, promising Shiites protection.

Last fall, fliers went up, warning that 10 Sunnis would die for every Shiite killed. As a wave of Sunni car bomb attacks on Shiites killed hundreds across Baghdad, reprisal attacks on Sunnis steadily escalated.

By early December, almost all Sunnis had fled Hurriyah, except for a handful of elderly Sunnis, and the Mahdi Army was running several checkpoints. By March, Shiites who had been displaced elsewhere were moving into Hurriyah, taking the shops and apartments of Sunnis who had fled.

By May, the murder rate in Hurriyah fell from more than 200 a week in December to about 10 a week, according to U.S. military forces then.

Almost all women now wear the full Islamic hijab veil, even girls in elementary school. During school holidays, boys and girls are encouraged to attend religious courses held in Shiite mosques and are given CDs of songs of the Mahdi Army.

"Hurriyah is a very beautiful place," said Abu Mustafa, a government employee who said he helped in Iraq's first elections and once held high hopes for his country. "But unfortunately, it fell in the hands of gangs."