Iraq Reopens Baghdad’s Green Zone to Ease Traffic Jams 

Iraqi security forces stand guard as they check motorists entering the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP)
Iraqi security forces stand guard as they check motorists entering the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP)
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Iraq Reopens Baghdad’s Green Zone to Ease Traffic Jams 

Iraqi security forces stand guard as they check motorists entering the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP)
Iraqi security forces stand guard as they check motorists entering the Green Zone, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP)

Iraqi authorities reopened Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Sunday in an attempt to ease traffic jams in the capital after it was closed and reopened several times in recent years. 

Starting in the early hours of the day, Iraqi authorities removed checkpoints and opened major roads and tunnels that cut through the zone on the west bank of the Tigris River. Cars will be allowed to pass through the area while trucks will be banned, officials said. 

The Green Zone, which houses Iraqi government buildings and the sprawling US Embassy, will be open every day for 14 hours starting at 5 a.m., Maj. Gen. Jassim Yahya told The Associated Press. During that period, Yahya said, “all the Green Zone will be open for the public.” 

The 4-square mile (10-square kilometer) zone with its palm trees and monuments has been mostly off limits to the public since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein. It was opened for the first time in 2019, then closed and opened again several times since. 

“The Green Zone has been opened to make it easy for people to reach work on time,” said traffic police Brig. Gen. Muhammad Mahmoud. He added that the opening of the area was ordered by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani. 

In the past, only Iraqis with special security badges could enter the area. 

The walled off area surrounded by cement blast walls became a hated symbol of the country’s inequality, fueling the perception among Iraqis that their government is out of touch. 

“We have been waiting for a long time for the Green Zone to fully become open,” said Baghdad resident Usama Hassan who works at Baghdad University. “This will make our life easier.” 



Three Palestinians Killed in Standoff with Security Forces in West Bank

Palestinians inspect the damage done to a mosque, after a reported attack by Israeli settlers, in the town of Marda near the West Bank city of Salfit on December 20, 2024. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage done to a mosque, after a reported attack by Israeli settlers, in the town of Marda near the West Bank city of Salfit on December 20, 2024. (AFP)
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Three Palestinians Killed in Standoff with Security Forces in West Bank

Palestinians inspect the damage done to a mosque, after a reported attack by Israeli settlers, in the town of Marda near the West Bank city of Salfit on December 20, 2024. (AFP)
Palestinians inspect the damage done to a mosque, after a reported attack by Israeli settlers, in the town of Marda near the West Bank city of Salfit on December 20, 2024. (AFP)

A Palestinian man and his son were killed in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, local medical officials said on Friday, as a month-long standoff between Palestinian security forces and armed militant groups in the town continued.

Separately, a security forces officer died in what Palestinian Authority (PA) officials said was an accident, bringing to six the total number of the security forces to have died in the operation in Jenin which began on Dec. 5. There were no further details.

The PA denied that its forces killed the 44-year-old man and his son, who were shot as they stood on the roof of their house in the Jenin refugee camp, a crowded quarter that houses descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven out in the 1948 Middle East war. The man's daughter was also wounded in the incident, Reuters reported.

At least eight Palestinians have been killed in Jenin over the past month, one of them a member of the armed Jenin Brigades, which includes members of the armed wings of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah factions.

Palestinian security forces moved into Jenin last month in an operation officials say is aimed at suppressing armed groups of "outlaws" who have built up a power base in the city and its adjacent refugee camp.

The operation has deepened splits among Palestinians in the West Bank, where the PA enjoys little popular support but where many fear being dragged into a Gaza-style conflict with Israel if the militant groups strengthen their hold.

Jenin, in the northern West Bank, has been a center of Palestinian militant groups for decades and armed factions have resisted repeated attempts to dislodge them by the Israeli military over the years.

The PA set up three decades ago under the Oslo interim peace accords, exercises limited sovereignty in parts of the West Bank and has claimed a role in administering Gaza once fighting in the enclave is concluded.

The PA is dominated by the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas and has long had a tense relationship with Hamas, with which it fought a brief civil war in Gaza in 2006 before Hamas drove it out of the enclave.