The past is the dream of Sunnis in tiny Baghdad enclave

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

BAGHDAD (AFP) — When he introduces himself, the young man in military fatigues and black leather jacket instinctively pulls out his ID card, ready for the inevitable incredulity.

"My name is Saddam Hussein," he says proudly, flashing the card to prove his claim.

In Fadel, a Sunni Muslim working-class quarter in central Baghdad, memories of the late dictator are fond, and a return to the past is the dream of the 6,000 or so families who live here.

The quarter, roughly four square kilometres (1.5 square miles) of narrow streets, two-storey buildings and alleyways running with raw sewage, has long been considered one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Baghdad.

Its residents have been fiercely anti-American and backers of the pro-Saddam insurgency...