Seventy people crowd into a truck returning to Baghdad from a village near the Syrian border. The families had fled north to escape the war. The trip home took eight hours. (Carolyn Cole / LAT)
A baby is passed down as a truck filled with six families arrives in Baghdad. The families had gone to the Syrian border to escape the war, but had experienced heavy bombing in the village where they stayed. (Carolyn Cole / LAT)
The family of Hassan Al Saidi returns to their Baghdad neighborhood after an eight hour trip from the Syrian border. Al Saidi and 21 family members fled the city the day before the war began. (Carolyn Cole / LAT)
Six families ride together in a truck as they return to Baghdad after escaping the war. They had gone to the farming village of Hadithi near the Syrian border where they stayed in a partially constructed building. (Carolyn Cole / LAT)
Iraqis wait to be checked by U.S. forces near a bridge over the Tigris. (Kevin P. Casey / LAT)
Iraqis cross a bridge over the Tigris River. The bridge was recently reopened after sustaining damage. (Kevin P. Casey / LAT)
Hussein Mehedi Saleh, 49, and his family work as shepherds near Nasariyah. Iraqi opposition leaders met at a nearby U.S. base to discuss Iraq’s future. “I’m happy because ‘the disease’ that we had is gone,” Saleh said of the Hussein regime. (Don Bartletti / LAT)
A child begs a foreign motorist to trade his Iraqi currency for a U.S. dollar. Many Iraqis are desperate to unload the nearly-worthless money. (Don Bartletti / LAT)
