Central market in Arbil reopened

Iraq-Market ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The Trade Ministry in Kurdistan on Monday reopened the central market in Arbil to control the prices of the food commodities, a senior official said. “The Trade Ministry and the Arbil province directorate decided to reopen the central market in Arbil after 18 years of closure,” Mohamed Abbas told Aswat al-Ira. “The aim of the decision is to control the prices of food commodities and to limit their increase in the local markets,” he added. “The Trade Ministry also decided to open a fair dedicated to the food commodities every week, in which dozens of the sector’s companies will contribute,” Abbas highlighted. Arbil, also written Erbil or Irbil, is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world and is one of the largest cities in Iraq. The city lies eighty kilometers (fifty miles) east of Mosul. In 2005, its estimated population was 990,000 inhabitants. The city is the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region and the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). It hosts the headquarters of the Kurdistan region ministers and parliament. Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, only isolated, sporadic violence has hit Arbil, unlike many other areas of Iraq. Parallel bomb attacks against the Eid celebrations arranged by the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan RegionG President Massoud Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) killed 109 people on February 1, 2004. Responsibility was claimed by the Islamist group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in solidarity with the Kurdish Islamist faction Ansar al-Islam. Another bombing on May 4, 2005 killed 60 civilians. Despite these bombings the population generally feels safe. SH (S)/SR 1