The Iraqi boy had just completed a rite of passage known to children around the world -- his first swim. But his fun also marked something broader: Another small step in Baghdad's halting progress from violence toward normal life.

Across the city this summer, a few parks and pools are opening to the public. And places such as Zawra Park, where three swimming pools opened Saturday after repairs financed by the U.S. military, are drawing crowds of Iraqi families.

"In the last eight or nine months, life has been normal in Zawra," said Salah al-Mandalawy, the assistant general manager of the park in western Baghdad.

For years, the sectarian violence after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 kept Iraqis cooped up inside their houses for fear any trip out the door could be their last.

A day in the park

The U.S. military hopes the recent ebb in violence will allow Iraqis to begin restoring their lives to normal. It is encouraging the process with projects such as the refurbishment of the pools at Zawra, one of the city's main parks.

Iraqi families now often spend the entire day in the park, al-Mandalawy said. With temperatures regularly over 100 degrees, the parks provide a much needed respite.

On Saturday, birds chirped in the overhanging trees. Patches of green grass, a little parched, lay underneath. The tranquility contrasts sharply with the period after the invasion when the park was hit by mortar fire, al-Mandalawy said. Some of the animals in the park's zoo were stolen.

Zawra's neighborhood was never among Baghdad's most violent, but it suffered its share of attacks.

Now, violence in Iraq has dropped to its lowest level in more than four years.

Ten-year-old Muntadhar al-Tammimi may not know the reasons for the drop in violence, but there was no hiding his smile Saturday as he stripped off his shirt and jumped into one of Zawra's pools, still wearing his jeans.

"I feel good!" al-Tammimi said as he and 10 other children splashed around.

Most of the children at the pool, like al-Tammimi, were sons or daughters of local officials who attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the pools' opening. But officials say the pools are open to the general public.

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