Baghdad's highway of death takes on new life

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The sale in Baghdad of peaked caps boasting "I survived Route Irish" have slumped -- reaching the capital's international airport is no longer the perilous dash it used to be, and the slogan is losing its relevance.

In fact, says police Colonel Hamoud Lafta al-Asadi, the 12-kilometre (7.5-mile) stretch of highway, termed "Route Irish" by the US military, is among the safest in the whole of Iraq.

And, promises the tall, wiry policeman with a neatly clipped moustache, it is set to become even safer.

"We are turning it into an impregnable security corridor. No one will be able to penetrate it to be able to plant roadside bombs," Colonel Asadi told AFP, while inspecting one of the endless checkpoints set up along the four-lane highway.

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