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Iraqi vendors diversify supplies in response to Syria, Anbar conflicts

Military operations launched in the Anbar province, located along the Syrian border, have disrupted the import of goods from Syria, leading Iraqi vendors to turn to other states to import goods.
A vendor pours tomatoes out to display while waiting for customers at a greengrocer's shop in Baghdad January 16, 2014. The day after one of Iraq's bloodiest days for months, shoppers and drivers packed the streets of Baghdad on Thursday, grimly aware that death can strike anywhere, any time. At least eight bombs hit the capital, mostly in Shi'ite districts, on Wednesday, killing 40 people and wounding 88, while attacks elsewhere pushed the national death toll to 78. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad (IRAQ - Tags: SOCIETY
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Some of the shops in Jamila, a district in eastern Baghdad that is known for food wholesalers, are empty of goods, after nearly two months have passed since the Iraqi army launched military operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in the Anbar province in western Iraq.

The majority of these shops depend on goods coming overland through Syria. The armed conflict raging in Syria, which intensified in late 2012, affected the flow of goods. However, things had been going well, although goods would sometimes take more than a week to arrive whenever the conflict worsened in Syria.

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