Iraq army begins evicting Baghdad squatters

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The Iraqi army began on Tuesday evicting squatters occupying the homes of people who fled sectarian violence in Baghdad but little movement could be seen on the first day of Ramadan for Shiites.

"The Iraqi forces started today (Tuesday) to evacuate the homes of families displaced, occupied by squatters," an Iraqi military statement said.

"In the past few days, 275 families have returned to Hay al-Adel and al-Jamiyah," two predominantly Sunni neighbourhoods where Shiites had been expelled, it said.

However there was little movement on the ground, an AFP journalist and residents in the neighbourhood said.

"I did not notice anything special but yesterday a family who occupied a house nearby held a party," said Yussef Mahmud Yussef, 52, a...