Three months after US forces dropped tonnes of bombs on Arab Jabur

Iraqi Mohammed Ali Jassim al-Juburi, 54, a former sergeant in the army of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, smokes a cigarette in front of a wall adorned with Iraqis who were killed by Al-Qaeda jihadists in Arab Jabur, 25 kms (15 miles) south of Baghdad, on April 17, 2008. Two of Juburi's brothers were killed by Al-Qaeda jihadists in a drive-by shooting while his son was among 12 youths killed in an ambush in December.

A US soldier from the 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment helps an Iraqi man to tie up a lamb he bought to slaughter before putting him in the trunk of his car in Arab Jabur on the southern edge of Baghdad on April 17, 2008. Three months after US forces dropped tonnes of bombs on Arab Jabur and put Al-Qaeda to flight, farmers are everywhere out in their fields tending their tomatoes. Homes in the Sunni Arab rural patch about 25 kms (15 miles) south of Baghdad are being rebuilt, schools reopened, roads repaired and irrigation pumps renewed, even as shopkeepers happily dust off their shelves.

A couple of Iraqi boys smile in front of a newly-reopened grocery store on a dusty rural road as US soldiers (not seen) patrol in Arab Jabur, 25 kms (15 miles) south of Baghdad, on April 17, 2008. Three months after US forces dropped tonnes of bombs on Arab Jabur and put Al-Qaeda to flight, farmers are everywhere out in their fields tending their tomatoes. Homes in the Sunni Arab rural patch are being rebuilt, schools reopened, roads repaired and irrigation pumps renewed, even as shopkeepers happily dust off their shelves.

Iraqi children walk past pictures of Iraqis who were killed by Al-Qaeda jihadists in Arab Jabur, 25 kms (15 miles) south of Baghdad, on April 17, 2008. Three months after US forces dropped tonnes of bombs on Arab Jabur and put Al-Qaeda to flight, farmers are everywhere out in their fields tending their tomatoes. Homes in the Sunni Arab rural patch are being rebuilt, schools reopened, roads repaired and irrigation pumps renewed, even as shopkeepers happily dust off their shelves.