BAGHDAD — Along the Tigris River, young Iraqi men and women in jeans and sneakers danced with joyous abandon on a recent evening to a local rapper as the sun set behind them. It's a world away from the terror that followed the U.S. invasion 20 years ago.
Iraq's capital is full of life, its residents enjoying a rare peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. The city's open-air book market is crammed with shoppers. Affluent young men cruise muscle cars. A few glitzy buildings sparkle where bombs once fell.
Youths gather along the Tigris River for a concert by rap artist OG Khalifa in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Feb. 25, 2023. One of the songs he performed mocks “sheikhs,” those who wield power in the new Iraq through wealth or political connections. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Women stand on the "martyrs' bridge" spanning the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid
Noor Alhuda Saad, 26, a Ph.D. candidate at Mustansiriya University who describes herself as a political activist, sits in a Baghdad cafe on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. She says her generation has been leading protests decrying corruption, demanding services and seeking more inclusive elections -- and won’t stop till they’ve built a better Iraq. “The people in power do not see these as important issues for them to solve. And that is why we are active.” (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Young men chat near Al-Mutanabbi street in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Two decades after a U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s capital today is full of life and a sense of renewal, its residents enjoying a hopeful, peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Worshippers gather for Friday prayers in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, on Friday, March 3, 2023. This working-class, conservative and largely Shiite suburb in eastern Baghdad is home to more than 1.5 million people. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Mohammed Zuad Khaman, center, prepares kebabs at his family's cafe in one of Baghdad's poorer neighborhoods along King Ghazi Street on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. Khaman is a talented footballer, but he says he cannot get an opportunity to play in any of Baghdad's amateur clubs because he does not have any "in" with the militia-related gangs that control sports teams in the city. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Photos: 20 years after U.S. invasion, young Iraqis see signs of hope
A man has his beard shaved by a barber in Fallujah, Iraq, on Thursday, March 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A motorized rickshaw, or tuk tuk, rides past the entrance of Abu Ghraib, Iraq, west of Baghdad, on Thursday, March 2, 2023. For Iraqis, the war and U.S. occupation which started two decades ago were traumatic – an estimated 300,000 Iraqis were killed between 2003 and 2019, according to an estimate by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, in addition to some 4,000 Americans. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
The sun sets over Baghdad, Iraq, on Thursday, March 2, 2023. A U.S.-led war twenty years ago deposed a dictator whose imprisonment, torture and execution of dissenters had kept 20 million people living in fear for a quarter of a century. But it also broke what had been a unified state at the heart of the Arab world. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A man makes his way to the al-Kadhimayn shrine in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Feb. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Youths gather along the Tigris River for a concert by rap artist OG Khalifa in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Feb. 25, 2023. One of the songs he performed mocks “sheikhs,” those who wield power in the new Iraq through wealth or political connections. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Pensioners, some of whom were prisoners of war during the first Gulf War, demonstrate outside the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. A U.S.-led war two decades earlier deposed a dictator whose imprisonment, torture and execution of dissenters had kept 20 million people living in fear for a quarter of a century. But it also broke what had been a unified state at the heart of the Arab world. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Youths wait for a ride on the bridge crossing the Euphrates River in Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, March 2, 2023. In 2004, four armed contractors working for the private military contractor Blackwater were killed and their bodies hung from the bridge. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Riot police take position on the outskirts of the Green Zone as pensioners, some of whom were prisoners of war during the first Gulf War, demonstrate in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. A U.S.-led war two decades earlier deposed a dictator whose imprisonment, torture and execution of dissenters had kept 20 million people living in fear for a quarter of a century. But it also broke what had been a unified state at the heart of the Arab world. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A family drinks tea at the Alshabander cafe on Al-Mutanabbi street in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Iraq’s capital today is full of life and a sense of renewal, its residents enjoying a hopeful, peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Women stand on the "martyrs' bridge" spanning the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A man holds his cellphone near Al-Mutanabbi street in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Two decades after a U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s capital today is full of life and a sense of renewal, its residents enjoying a hopeful, peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Worshippers gather for Friday prayers in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, on Friday, March 3, 2023. This working-class, conservative and largely Shiite suburb in eastern Baghdad is home to more than 1.5 million people. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Youths gather along the Tigris River for a concert by rap artist OG Khalifa in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Feb. 25, 2023. One of the songs he performs mocks “sheikhs,” those who wield power in the new Iraq through wealth or political connections. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A U.S.-branded muscle car speeds through the streets of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A family heads to the al-Kadhimayn shrine in Baghdad, Iraq, on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023. For Iraqis, the war and U.S. occupation which started two decades ago were traumatic – an estimated 300,000 Iraqis were killed between 2003 and 2019, according to an estimate by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, in addition to some 4,000 Americans. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Two students celebrate their graduation at the upscale Qalaat Baghdad restaurant complex built in a former palace of Saddam Hussein along the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Safaa Rashid looks into a security camera in a Baghdad cafe, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. The 26-year-old was a child when the Americans arrived in 2003, but he said he rues "the loss of a state, a country that had law and establishment." (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Noor Alhuda Saad, 26, a Ph.D. candidate at Mustansiriya University who describes herself as a political activist, sits in a Baghdad cafe on Wednesday, March 1, 2023. She says her generation has been leading protests decrying corruption, demanding services and seeking more inclusive elections -- and won’t stop till they’ve built a better Iraq. “The people in power do not see these as important issues for them to solve. And that is why we are active.” (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Members of a cycling club take to the roads for a 50-kilometer (31-mile) trip in Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. The group organizes rides weekly for scores of men and women who see bike-riding as a healthy way to relieve life's stress and for good company. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A veiled woman walks through the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. This working-class, conservative and largely Shiite suburb in eastern Baghdad is home to more than 1.5 million people. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Youths gather along the Tigris River for a concert by rap artist Khalifa OG in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday Feb. 25, 2023. In his music, he sings about the difficulties of finding work and satirizes authority, but is not blatantly political. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani sits for a portrait in his office in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, March 1, 2023. Unlike other Shiite politicians who fled Iraq during the Saddam Hussein era, he never left Iraq, even after his father and five brothers were executed by the regime. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
In a long exposure photo, night sets on Firdos Square, the site where American soldiers downed a statue of Saddam Hussein two decades earlier in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. Today's Iraq is a world away from the terror that followed the U.S. invasion to depose Saddam Hussein. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Young men chat near Al-Mutanabbi street in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Two decades after a U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s capital today is full of life and a sense of renewal, its residents enjoying a hopeful, peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A man touches the door of the Office of the Martyr al-Sadr in Baghdad's Sadr City Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. This working-class, conservative and largely Shiite suburb in eastern Baghdad is home to more than 1.5 million people. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A man reads a book at the Alshabander cafe on Al-Mutanabbi street in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. A U.S.-led war two decades earlier deposed a dictator whose imprisonment, torture and execution of dissenters had kept 20 million people living in fear for a quarter of a century. But it also broke what had been a unified state at the heart of the Arab world. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A woman walks through the narrow streets of Alsadria neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. For Iraqis, the trauma from the war and U.S. occupation launched twenty years ago is undeniable – an estimated 300,000 Iraqis were killed between 2003 and 2019, according to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, as were more than 8,000 U.S. military, contractors and civilians. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Mohammed Zuad Khaman, center, prepares kebabs at his family's cafe in one of Baghdad's poorer neighborhoods along King Ghazi Street on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023. Khaman is a talented footballer, but he says he cannot get an opportunity to play in any of Baghdad's amateur clubs because he does not have any "in" with the militia-related gangs that control sports teams in the city. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Muscle car aficionados gather at Baghdad's hippodrome to watch an informal drifting contest Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Two decades after a U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s capital today is full of life and a sense of renewal, its residents enjoying a hopeful, peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
The ferris wheel of Baghdad's Alzawraa amusement park shines in the night in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. Two decades after a U.S.-led invasion, Iraq’s capital today is full of life and a sense of renewal, its residents enjoying a hopeful, peaceful interlude in a painful modern history. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A man holds a vintage stamps featuring King Faisal II near Al-Mutanabbi street in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)