pa href="http://news.yahoo.com/saddam-war-iraqs-musicians-look-home-140131194.html"img src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/49YMFtGkaKzMRGNgky3sIw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9ODU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2012-07-11T143234Z_1_CBRE86A14ED00_RTROPTP_2_IRAQ-MUSIC.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="Iraqi oud player Naseer Shamma performs during a concert in Baghdad" align="left" title="Iraqi oud player Naseer Shamma performs during a concert in Baghdad" border="0" //aBAGHDAD (Reuters) - With as many as 15 concerts scheduled in an evening it used to be hard to decide which to attend, and pockets of Baghdad came alive with the beat of drums and twang of Iraqi ouds. But that was a long time ago. Many of Iraq#039;s most talented musicians fled during the rule of Saddam Hussein, fearing persecution for their political views and suffering from a lack of funding and exposure if they refused to glorify the leader in their art. Others left after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, escaping violence as war broke out. Concert venues were shuttered. .../pbr clear="all"/
(
Source)