Suitcases selling well in Iraq

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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15225012.htm

AP Correspondent Robert H. Reid covers Iraq events from Baghdad for The Associated Press. AP Correspondent Rebecca Santana is embedded with the New Jersey National Guard at Camp Anaconda, Iraq.

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Aug. 8, 2006, 4 p.m. local

BAGHDAD

The only store open last weekend at a shopping district in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood was the one selling suitcases. And business was brisk.

It seems like every Iraqi in what passes for the middle class either knows someone who has left or is planning to leave. Better-off Iraqis head for Jordan, Syria or the United Arab Emirates - or send their families there.

Those without enough money head for areas within Iraq where their religious sect is in the majority. With sectarian death squads lurking, there's safety in numbers. Those who stay put in places where they are in the minority are not necessarily the bravest: they just don't have enough money to leave.

Moving isn't that simple. Rents have skyrocketed in Baghdad neighborhoods that are deemed safe, a relative term here in Iraq. Many of those who flee the capital altogether end up living with relatives since chances of finding another job in provincial cities are not good.