Forbidden pleasures return to Mosul as Al-Qaeda melts away

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) — Ata Taha tied the knot with his university sweetheart in a popular park and traditional meeting point for lovers in Iraq's northern city of Mosul -- but only after Al-Qaeda went on the retreat.

"My family had advised me to have a private wedding or celebrate abroad but I stood my ground," the 26-year-old said proudly. "I got my wish -- I married my colleague and we did so in public."

Al-Qaeda militants had banned all public expressions of joy in Mosul, and even prevented the sale of a local popular bread, claiming that it was a breach of Muslim tradition.

In mid-May Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said a crackdown had begun against a Sunni area of Mosul that the American military describes as the last urban bastion of Al-Qaeda jihadists in...