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PHOTOS: 10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

This month marks ten years since the Unites States of America launched its invasion of Iraq.

The country has been the scene of bitter battles and bloodshed for years, but the poignant photos you will see here show how life has moved on for Iraqis.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Iraqi fans watch the soccer match between Iraq and Indonesia during the first round of Group C in the Asian Cup 2015 in Australia, at a coffee shop in Baghdad, on February 6, 2013. 

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Men sit at a floating cafe on a ferry docked on the shores of the Shatt al-Arab waterway in Basra, 420 km southeast of Baghdad. For the hip and trendy in Iraq's southern oil city of Basra, a warm spring evening spent puffing a water pipe or drinking tea on a boat that was once used to smuggle oil is just the ticket.

Ferries used to smuggle crude, weapons and people in the mayhem that followed the 2003 overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein have been transformed into floating cafes as the shore of the Shatt al-Arab waterway reclaims its role as a nightlife hotspot.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A boy carries a AK47 rifle at the Chebayesh marsh in Nassiriya, 300 km southeast of Baghdad. The Marsh Arabs who had farmed this area for thousands of years, were badly affected by a campaign mounted by the government of Saddam Hussein in the 1990s to destroy their lifestyle.

The marshes were drained of water, and hundreds of thousands of Marsh Arabs were forced to flee to cities, where they live in poverty, the locals in this area said.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A woman carries a bouquet of flowers in a shop during Valentine's Day celebrations in Baghdad.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Students walk to class on the first day of the new school term at a primary school in Baghdad.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A widow works on a sewing machine at her house in Baghdad's Sadr city.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Policewomen attend a ceremony marking the Iraqi Police's 90th anniversary at a police academy in Baghdad. 

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A woman works out on a treadmill at a gym in Baghdad. Inssam, the owner of the gym, said she had noticed an increase in the number of women working out at the gym recently, a trend which she attributed to the influx of Western television programmes into the country after 2003.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Children drive motorised floats in a pool during Eid-al-Adha festival, at a park on Abu Nawas street in Baghdad.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Iraqis ride a jet boat in the Tigris River in Baghdad. Lingering violence and raw sewage in the water are no deterrents for a group of wealthy, young Iraqis who spend their free time jet-skiing through the Tigris in a burst of white foam and spray.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A woman sells legumes at a market in Baghdad's Sadr City.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Boys play soccer during a training session by Sadiq al-Wohali in Baghdad.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Iraqi police vehicles patrol the highway in Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, September 24, 2007. Only six months ago, many Iraqi travellers considered it a suicidal risk to take the insurgent-controlled desert highway that stretches from Baghdad to neighbouring Syria and Jordan.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A boy plays the violin at Sulaimaniya Music Institute in Sulaimaniya, 260 km northeast of Baghdad. Sulaimaniya Music Institute has not been restored since the war, but teacher Azad Maaruf continues to teach young children music for a nominal fee.

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PHOTOS: 10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

People attend Friday prayers at the Imam Hussein shrine in Kerbala, some 80 km southwest of Baghdad.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

People dance at a nightclub in Baghdad in 2009. Initially there were efforts by authorities, clergy and unknown bands of neighbourhood enforcers to police morals by shutting nightclubs, bars and other establishments that heightened concerns among academics and intellectuals that Iraq, now emerging from war, was displaying the tendencies of a hard-line Islamic state.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Residents gather at the Shabandar Cafe in Baghdad's Mutanabi street. Reading books, buying books and discussing books are the defining pleasures of being a Baghdad intellectual, and for generations the life of the mind has orbited around this lane, the booksellers' market of the Iraqi capital.

In 2007, in a blow felt deeply by Iraq's intelligentsia, a car bomb killed 26 people here. Now, the street is again open, guarded and seemingly safe, and jammed every Friday with students, professors and professionals. The street begins, overlooking the Tigris, at a statue of Mutanabi, a 10th century poet and one of the towering figures of Arabic literature.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A man walks at his shop selling traditional hand-made copper ware in Baghdad. Al-Safafeer Souq is one of the Iraqi capital's street markets selling traditional and cultural goods ranging from souvenir items to antiques.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Men smoke water pipes at the Shabandar Cafe in Baghdad.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A customer shops for clothes at a clothing store in Baghdad's Karrada district

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A man works at his shop selling traditional handmade copperware in a market in Basra, 420 km southeast of Baghdad.

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

Boys play computer games in an internet cafe in Baghdad.            

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10 years on, IRAQ is no more a warzone

A vendor sells cooked turnip for residents on a sidewalk in Baghdad.  

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