A group of eight Westerners is getting ready to leave Iraq. Unlikemost Westerners in Iraq these days, they are not affiliated with agovernment or a foreign military.
These eight men and women fromthe United States and Britain are tourists - part of the firstofficially sanctioned tour of Iraq since 2003.
British-basedadventure travel company Hinterland Travel organized the two-weekexcursion that took the tourists to Baghdad, the ancient ruins ofBabylon and Ur, as well as the golden domed al-Askariya shrine in thenorthern town of Samarra.
Militants bombed the shrine, one of the holiest sites of Shi'ite Islam, in 2006 touching off months of sectarian violence.
Thetourists say while there were plenty of hassles and they were not ableto see all the sites on their itinerary, they enjoyed the trip.
Thetourists say they also made a trip to the semi-autonomous Kurdishregion in the north, though they were not able to visit Iraq's rebuiltNational Museum.
Hinterland Managing Director Geoff Hann workedwith the Iraqi government to arrange the two-week trip, and says he isalready lining up groups for future tours of the country.