Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
January 4, 2008 Tigris span was site of ghastly stampede
By Diaa Hadid, Associated Press
BAGHDAD -- For decades, the Imams Bridge spanning the Tigris River linked two ancient Baghdad neighborhoods -- one Sunni, the other Shiite -- and illustrated the city's tradition of sectarian tolerance, as residents from both sides harmoniously intermingled.
But the Imams was sealed and barricaded after nearly 1,000 Shiites fleeing what they thought was a Sunni suicide bomber died in a stampede on the bridge in 2005. It has remained closed through the past two years of rampant sectarian violence across the capital.
Iraqi authorities now want to reopen the four-lane, 900-foot bridge. For most residents, however, the wounds are too fresh and the fears too real to risk reopening a passageway between the two communities. They are fighting the plan.
As violence lessens across the capital -- the U.S. military says attacks in Baghdad have dropped 81 percent since June -- the problem of the Imams Bridge offers a glimpse at one of the biggest challenges ahead: how to begin normalizing security measures during what Iraqis hope is a transition to a less bloody future, part of the government's effort to achieve national reconciliation.
On one side of the Imams Bridge is the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiya and on the other is the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah.
The bridge, built in 1957, was named after two men who lived on each bank of the Tigris in the eighth century. Both Abu Hanifa and Mousa al-Kazim were imams, a term Muslims use when referring to the most learned of men.
The shrine to Imam Abu Hanifa, one of the greatest masters of Sunni jurisprudence, is in Azamiyah, a district so named because Abu Hanifa is also called the Imam al-Azam, or "the most glorious imam."
Across the river in Kazimiya lies the shrine of Imam Mousa al-Kazim, one of the holiest men of Shiism.
Intriguingly, Abu Hanifa studied under the guidance of the older al-Kazim, and both men were persecuted by the ruling powers of their day and are believed to have died in prison.
Some residents of Azamiyah and Kazimiyah are bound by tribal links, and it was not uncommon until a few years back for the Sunnis of Azamiyah to visit the sprawling shrine of Imam Kazim across the river.
Ironically, Azamiyah is in the Shiite-dominated eastern bank of the Tigris known as Rusafah, while Kazimiyah is in Karkh, the mainly Sunni part of Baghdad on the river's west bank.
With a history of peaceful coexistence between the Azamiyah's Sunnis and Kazimiyah's Shiites, Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, a senior Iraqi military spokesman, said recently that the bridge should be reopened.
But residents of Kazimiyah and Azamiyah fear a renewal of car bombings and mortar attacks in the two neighborhoods if the bridge reopens. In 2007 alone, according to an Associated Press count, at least 81 people were reported killed in Azamiyah and at least 54 in Kazimiyah.
Al-Moussawi did not give a date for the bridge's reopening, but his statement last week was enough to raise alarm. Sunni leaders in Azamiyah have met twice to condemn the measure. Shiite leaders have set out strict security conditions for reopening the bridge.
Developments
The U.S. military announced on Thursday the deaths of three of its soldiers. Two were killed and a third was wounded in a small-arms attack Thursday in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. A soldier was killed the previous day in southern Baghdad when his dismounted patrol hit a roadside bomb.
Representatives of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met Thursday with officials from his chief rival's party in an effort to cement a tenuous peace agreement the two signed in October after violent clashes between their followers. It was at least the second formal overture al-Sadr has made to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim and his Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council in less than a week.
January 4, 2008 Tigris span was site of ghastly stampede
By Diaa Hadid, Associated Press
BAGHDAD -- For decades, the Imams Bridge spanning the Tigris River linked two ancient Baghdad neighborhoods -- one Sunni, the other Shiite -- and illustrated the city's tradition of sectarian tolerance, as residents from both sides harmoniously intermingled.
But the Imams was sealed and barricaded after nearly 1,000 Shiites fleeing what they thought was a Sunni suicide bomber died in a stampede on the bridge in 2005. It has remained closed through the past two years of rampant sectarian violence across the capital.
Iraqi authorities now want to reopen the four-lane, 900-foot bridge. For most residents, however, the wounds are too fresh and the fears too real to risk reopening a passageway between the two communities. They are fighting the plan.
As violence lessens across the capital -- the U.S. military says attacks in Baghdad have dropped 81 percent since June -- the problem of the Imams Bridge offers a glimpse at one of the biggest challenges ahead: how to begin normalizing security measures during what Iraqis hope is a transition to a less bloody future, part of the government's effort to achieve national reconciliation.
On one side of the Imams Bridge is the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiya and on the other is the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah.
The bridge, built in 1957, was named after two men who lived on each bank of the Tigris in the eighth century. Both Abu Hanifa and Mousa al-Kazim were imams, a term Muslims use when referring to the most learned of men.
The shrine to Imam Abu Hanifa, one of the greatest masters of Sunni jurisprudence, is in Azamiyah, a district so named because Abu Hanifa is also called the Imam al-Azam, or "the most glorious imam."
Across the river in Kazimiya lies the shrine of Imam Mousa al-Kazim, one of the holiest men of Shiism.
Intriguingly, Abu Hanifa studied under the guidance of the older al-Kazim, and both men were persecuted by the ruling powers of their day and are believed to have died in prison.
Some residents of Azamiyah and Kazimiyah are bound by tribal links, and it was not uncommon until a few years back for the Sunnis of Azamiyah to visit the sprawling shrine of Imam Kazim across the river.
Ironically, Azamiyah is in the Shiite-dominated eastern bank of the Tigris known as Rusafah, while Kazimiyah is in Karkh, the mainly Sunni part of Baghdad on the river's west bank.
With a history of peaceful coexistence between the Azamiyah's Sunnis and Kazimiyah's Shiites, Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, a senior Iraqi military spokesman, said recently that the bridge should be reopened.
But residents of Kazimiyah and Azamiyah fear a renewal of car bombings and mortar attacks in the two neighborhoods if the bridge reopens. In 2007 alone, according to an Associated Press count, at least 81 people were reported killed in Azamiyah and at least 54 in Kazimiyah.
Al-Moussawi did not give a date for the bridge's reopening, but his statement last week was enough to raise alarm. Sunni leaders in Azamiyah have met twice to condemn the measure. Shiite leaders have set out strict security conditions for reopening the bridge.
Developments
The U.S. military announced on Thursday the deaths of three of its soldiers. Two were killed and a third was wounded in a small-arms attack Thursday in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. A soldier was killed the previous day in southern Baghdad when his dismounted patrol hit a roadside bomb.
Representatives of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met Thursday with officials from his chief rival's party in an effort to cement a tenuous peace agreement the two signed in October after violent clashes between their followers. It was at least the second formal overture al-Sadr has made to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim and his Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council in less than a week.