Iraqis celebrate New Year

STORY: Iraqis celebrate New Year DATELINE: Jan. 1, 2023 LENGTH: 00:01:45 LOCATION: Baghdad CATEGORY: SOCIETY SHOTLIST: 1. various of the fireworks and cerebrations STORYLINE: Iraqis celebrated the New Year 2023 on Saturday at midnight, with massive fireworks in many areas of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. In downtown Baghdad, thousands of young people and families gathered despite the cold weather to watch the fireworks and express their best wishes for the New Year. Alaa Hassan, a housewife in her 30s, came with her husband and two children to celebrate the New Year at Baghdad's cultural center of al-Mutanabi Street on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. "I'm so happy and having a good time with my family, because everything here is amazing with these fireworks," Hassan told Xinhua. "I hope that our dreams will come true in the coming year and that it will be a year in which we will not see sadness, disease, or misery," Hassan said. Ammar Khalil, 26, said, "I wish that Iraqis will live in peace, prosp