An emotional Naeem El-Shatri weeps for friends killed during the car bombing in the Mutanabi Street booksellers district. El-Shatri recalls how he would join his friends each morning for breakfast. (Saad Khalaf / LAT)
Nejah Hayiani lifts charred fabric from a trouser leg from the rubble. A cellphone attached to the waistband told him it belonged to his dead brother, Mohammed. We didnt find bodies; we just found pieces of flesh, he said bitterly. (Saad Khalaf / LAT)
More than a week after the blast, signs of normality return to Mutanabi Street, where vendors display their books for sale. (Saad Khalaf / LAT)
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A worker retrieves books from one of the many damaged shops on Mutanabi Street. The street is named for a renowned Arabic poet, Al Mutanabbi, and is an area of mixed Shiite- and Sunni-owned businesses and customers. (Saad Khalaf / LAT)