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The men emerged from behind the shop's metal grille clutching black plastic bags, or with pockets bulging, eyes peeled for the enforcers of Islamic law.

They hurried with their precious, clanking cargo to waiting cars or quickly flagged down taxis. It may be furtive but, for the first time in years, alcohol is being sold openly again on the streets of Baghdad.

With security slowly improving in the city centre Iraqis are returning to a long-forgotten pastime — drinking. In the days when the Mahdi Army, the deadly guardians of Muslim morality, roamed central Baghdad at will, many alcohol vendors had their shops blown up and their colleagues kidnapped and murdered.

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There is still much nervousness involved in selling liquor. With unemployment high, though, and a thirsty clientele in dire need of a drink to calm its blast-shattered nerves, vendors are once again risking all to sell liquid relaxation.

“Yes, we are still afraid,” said Murad Abdul, the owner of a shop in Karrada, a middle class area where Christians live alongside wealthy Shia, long the area with the most off licences. A few months ago there were none that dared open, and buying alcohol meant knowing the right people.

Mr Abdul has reason to be afraid. He was kidnapped from his shop by the Mahdi Army in April 2006. They demanded a hefty ransom. His family did not have the money but managed to borrow £6,000.

The militiamen told Mr Abdul they were going to kill him despite the payment. He survived only because a US army patrol raided the house where he was held. He was forced to reopen his risky business to pay off the debt from the ransom.

In September the Mahdi Army — a sprawling mob incorporating Islamist zealots and hardened criminals — was ordered to observe a ceasefire by its commander, the cleric Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, who was losing control. Since then the alcohol trade has started booming again.

“The Mahdi Army tried to make people live in an Islamic way,” Mr Abdul said. “People are still afraid of them. Customers buy alcohol and hide it under their car seats, in the boot or they'll bring in a jerry can and fill it up.”

Despite the heavy police presence in the area, few are reassured — many of the policemen are militia members.

Bottlers in the north of the country, where the drink is imported from Turkey, have started providing small cans of gin, whisky and arak, with fake English names like “Guardsmen Gin,” which people can conceal in their pockets. Like bootleggers in Prohibition America, the alcohol traders bring their booty in heavily armed convoys from the north to the capital. Unlike 1920s Chicago, however, this a completely legal trade being driven underground by illegal militias.

Paulus Ishaq, a Christian liquor salesman, sells quite openly over the counter from his shop on Sadoun Street, close to the Palestine Hotel.

“The Government controls the streets here. My other shop across the street was burnt down by the Mahdi Army four months ago, and I opened this new one a month ago,” he said.

“The Mahdi Army are still around, but not like before. There are many shops opening now around here.”

“Business is good now,” he said. “Iraqis like to drink.”

Business is even better in the Shia south, Mr Abdul said. A small can of gin that goes for 50p in Baghdad sells for £10 in Basra, where Iranian-backed Shia militias rule the streets.

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