As violence lessens, more Iraqi factories are reopening

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Moayed Saqbani shows the Nissan distribution center he has helped guard since 2003.


As violence lessens, more Iraqi factories are reopening
By Travis J. Tritten, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, December 27, 2008

MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq — The equipment at the Nissan distribution center is neatly wrapped in plastic, waiting to be used.

The marble showroom floor still shines beneath a cover piled with dust and bird droppings.

For nearly six years, Moayed Saqbani has guarded the idle facility and its adjacent mosque in the Warij industrial district, waiting for the day it would finally open for business.

The facility was one of Iraq’s biggest business projects in the days before the invasion, he said, but was thrust into limbo during years of fighting in the area once known as the “Triangle of Death.”

With violence now receding, its day might be coming — the distribution center could begin operations within two to three months, according to coalition reconstruction officials in Mahmudiyah.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59650