JumpStart International has begun clearing a rubble field near the Mahmudia-Baghdad highway with three bulldozers.Traditionally, JumpStart has focused on clearing damaged buildings, but we are now beginning general rubble removal projects. Because all buildings in Iraq are built using concrete or brick, housing construction and renovations (not to mention demolitions) create a huge amount of physical waste. With the traffic as jammed as it has become since the end of the war, and the lawlessness still unabated, people routinely dump their garbage throughout the city at impromptu dump sites, exacerbating the reconstruction progress, and further creating an atmosphere of chaos in the city. This is the second rubble field JumpStart is clearing. The first was a rubble field near Hay Al Farat community clinic.

A view of the rubble field (less than one percent of the area). The total rubble field is probably about 120 acres.

JumpStart has a few bulldozers and a backhoe at the site. In the distance, scavengers look for metal to sell.

JumpStart International began demolition and clearance work on an old Iraqi Intelligence building located on the road to Baghdad International Airport.

View from the rear. The building took between two to three large bombs, but it stood up pretty well. Most of the damage is from looters.

 A typical view from inside the building.

The broken marble and rubble is from looter damage...

The structural damage is from bombs. JumpStart will use hand jackhammers to destroy the damaged parts and leave the re-bar so that the walls can be extended and rebuilt by the reconstruction crews.

The stairway is truncated at the fifth floor (twisted down and away at the bottom of the frame), making it difficult to clear the upper floors.

This is the first bombed building that many people coming from Baghdad International Airport will see.

Work began today on an office building of the Ministry of Industry and Materials.

The building was primarily damaged by extensive bombing. The Ministry administration is hoping to take the top two floors of the seven-story building off via the JumpStart clearance and demolition work here.

The building is prominently located on the highway from Mahmudia to Baghdad; it is the biggest eyesore in the region.

Looking east.

Looking south. Mohaymen goes up the stairs over the rubble. 

The top floor collapsed onto the sixth floor.

Looking west.