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From Our Own Correspondent: Fear in Baghdad, and the changing times in Yangon

An Iraqi child helps to clean up a shop destroyed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad (AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images)

07/10/2014

Fear in Baghdad, and the changing times in Yangon

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Fear in Baghdad, and the changing times in Yangon

Militant Islamist fear in Baghdad, and times of change for Rangoon or Yangon today

Militant Islamist fear in Baghdad, and times of change for Rangoon or Yangon today.

The recent history of violent jihadism suggests that when militant Islamist movements win power they are so brutal they lose public support. It happened in Pakistan’s Swat Valley and it happened in Iraq in around 2005 when the local branch of al-Qaeda was run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi - one of the reasons that people in Baghdad are so anxious just now. The BBC’s Lyce Doucet reports from a tense city.

Also, Andrew Whitehead reports from a city that was once a destination for millions of migrants. But in Rangoon, known as Yangon today, there are only occasional reminders of what a cosmopolitan place the city once was. Our correspondent took a ferry across the Yangon River to seek a sense of how the city has changed, and is changing once more.

(Photo: An Iraqi child helps to clean up a shop destroyed in a car bomb attack in the Shiite-dominated district of Baghdad al-Jadida. Credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)

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