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  Living and Dying in Baghdad: One Day in the World's Most Dangerous City

Living and Dying in Baghdad One Day in the World's Most Dangerous City

By Mathieu von Rohr, Hussam Ali, Ala Chalil Nassir and Bernhard Zand

6:00 a.m., ISKAN

Imad, the body collector, is awakened by the sun. He unrolls his small rug and says his morning prayers, then he reads from the Koran. It is important to him to know that God is at his side because his work could cost him his life at any time. Imad, a former taxi driver, now makes a living driving bodies. He finds them and recovers them when their families are unable to. It's a good business. He is 39, a thin, nervous-looking man with a black beard and coarse hands. He lives in Iskan, a poor, crowded neighborhood near downtown Baghdad. Since Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi militia assumed control, only Shiites live in the district. Imad's house is tiny: four rooms on two floors. He sleeps in one of the upper rooms and his mother and two sisters sleep in the other one. Imad is single and says he is too busy to look for a wife.

7:00 a.m., The Green Zone >>