(This is one of a series of stories on life in Baghdad issued on Dec 7)
By Ahmed Rasheed
BAGHDAD, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The fear of black-clad Shi'ite militia gunmen storming his Baghdad house haunted Abu Aya's nights for months.
After receiving a tip from a Shi'ite friend that he was "next on the list", the soft-spoken Sunni fine art lecturer and sculptor has finally moved out of his home of more than 20 years in a Shi'ite neighbourhood and settled in a Sunni area across the Tigris river that divides the Iraqi capital.
"Every time a bomb or a suicide bomber struck Sadr City, I expected Shi'ite militiamen to break into my house and kidnap me or my sons and that we would end up being dead bodies dumped in the garbage," he said, referring to the Shi'ite slum and militia bastion that has been targeted many times by Sunni insurgents.
Fearful of sectarian reprisals that have killed thousands, families from the Shi'ite Muslim majority and the Sunni minority in Baghdad are quietly moving from their homes in mixed areas to relocate in religiously homogenous districts within the capital in a pattern that is consolidating a de facto division.
Baghdad, a city of 7 million, has been religiously mixed for most of its history since it was founded 1,000 years ago -- for centuries it was known as the "City of Peace."
But with death squads forcing many to flee, a new city is emerging -- one with a mostly Sunni west and mainly Shi'ite east divided by the Tigris, which acts as a kind of Beirut-style "Green Line", the front-line that divided the Lebanese city during its war in the 1980s.
The trend has sparked a "sectarian" house market in Baghdad, where demand to move to better neighbourhoods is not dictated by traditional real estate considerations such as local schools, transport or parks but by ethnic make-up, estate agents say.
"I have registered more than 50 Sunni families who have asked me to find houses for rent in Sunni areas like Amiriya, Mansour, Yarmuk and Khadhra. Those families left their homes in areas considered dangerous for Sunnis to live in," said estate agent Ahmed Husam al-Taie.
Taie said families living in areas where they are the religious minority are asking for "house swaps" with families from the rival sect also desiring to move to a neighbourhood where others of their kind live.
In many cases families who agree to "house swaps" even leave their furniture behind.
"I've concluded many rental contracts between Sunni and Shi'ite families. Both left their furniture because gunmen warned them to leave without it," said estate agent Ali al- Saadi, who works in Palestine Street, a major traffic artery that is a flashpoint between rival neighbourhoods.
Shi'ites and Sunnis have long lived together in Baghdad, a city which also had a significant number of Jewish and Christian inhabitants until the middle of the last century.
The peaceful Shi'ite-Sunni cohabitation has changed since the February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra unleashed a wave of sectarian revenge killings.
Close to half a million Iraqis have fled for other parts of the country, officials say, dividing the nation and Baghdad in ways resembling Bosnia or Lebanon during their conflicts. Many fear these divisions could pave the way for all-out civil war.
Another 1.6 million have fled Iraq altogether.
Saddam Hussein, a member of the Sunni minority that dominated Iraq until Shi'ites swept to power after he was ousted in a U.S.-led invasion, formed Sunni clusters in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad by rewarding military officers with villas and plots.
He also allocated real estate in newly developed neighbourhoods based on Baath party affiliation, and consolidated Shi'ite ghettos, where impoverished Shi'ite villagers were settled, such as Sadr City. Today, every spike in sectarian violence leads to a surge in demand for property in religiously homogenous neighbourhoods, real estate agents say.
Last month, car bombs planted by suspected Sunni insurgents killed more than 200 Shi'ites in Sadr City in the deadliest attack since the invasion. Shi'ite militias have responded to Sunni attacks by raining mortars into Sunni neighbourhoods such as Adhamiya.
After the attack on Sadr City, neighbours in the Sunni Khodhra district spent all night on their rooftops in freezing temperatures, keeping watch for raiding Shi'ite militias.
"We thought they would come at any time. We had neighbourhood watch groups patrolling our streets and we were constantly on our phones," said one person.
Some like Majid al-Khuzaie, a 35-year-old Shi'ite civil servant, left his house in Sunni Amiriya but still couldn't find peace of mind. In his new neighbourhood, while he is surrounded by Shi'ite neighbours, the nightmare continues with daily mortars and daylight shootings.
"I left my home and rented one temporarily in Amil district, which turned out to be worse," he said. "I don't know where to go because the whole country is a battlefield."
08 December 2006
07 December 2006
AP Article: A message from Iraq's athletes: We made it
A message from Iraq's athletes: We made it
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer
December 5, 2006
DOHA, Qatar (AP) -- Iraqi athletes are hardly bothered by old equipment or few places to train. There are more pressing worries -- the fear of being killed or kidnapped.
In the face of such danger, Iraq ended a two-decade absence from the Asian Games. It sent 81 athletes to Doha, men and women exhibiting a will to carry on amid the chaos. Ali Adnan Amir is at enough of a disadvantage, even without the constant peril. He is competing in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke. He is also all of 10 years old, the youngest swimmer in the competition at Doha.
Amir practices every day for about three hours after school, "but whenever there is a curfew I can't go to train so I wait for the next day" -- or the day after that.
And he's considered lucky.
Amir's home and nearby club are in Baghdad's Palestine Street, where the violence is not as great as in other parts of the city.
"We try to do proper training despite all the hardship in Baghdad," said Mohammed Sarmad, who is Amir's coach.
National air pistol shooting champion Dhiyya Hassan had to stop practicing at his regular club and set up a range at his house.
Weightlifter Harem Ali, a Kurd from the northern city of Sulaimaniya, had to switch his training base from Baghdad to the south. He won a bronze medal in the 170-pound Monday, Iraq's first medal of any kind at the Asian Games since it won five silver and two bronze in 1986 at Seoul, South Korea.
Hassan did not do well. He ranked 31st among 54 shooters, but neither he nor his coach were surprised.
"Before the war, I used to train at the club five times a week," the 44-year-old shooter said. "Now I train at home where there is no real atmosphere."
Tens of thousands of people have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Explosions, shootings and shelling are daily occurrences.
"Any fair person who looks at Iraq knows that it is impossible for the athletes to train," team spokesman Imad Nasser said. "There aren't enough clubs and there can't be reconstruction when there is war."
The Iraqi delegation arrived in Doha only two days before the opening ceremony because of a three-day curfew in Baghdad. It was imposed by the government after hundreds of people were killed last Thursday in a series of bombing attacks.
Iraq's soccer team was turned away from the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, which started seven weeks after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Kuwait's Sheik Fahd Al Sabah, the head of the Olympic Council of Asia, was killed in that invasion and Iraq was suspended by the continental authorities. With Saddam deposed, Iraq has been welcomed back.
Iraq's delegation in Qatar has hopes for medals in weightlifting, rowing and boxing.
"Every Iraqi who came to Doha is a hero even without winning," said Tiras Anwaya, head of the delegation. "Had the security situation been better, Iraqi athletes would have trained better and used better equipment. Now the athletes are here and their minds are in Baghdad thinking about explosions and killings."
Khudayer Abbas Basha, coach for the national weightlifting team, said planning has begun for some Iraqi athletes to train abroad. Such action is encouraged by the International Olympic Committee.
IOC president Jacques Rogge supports the return of Iraq's athletes to competition. The Iraqi soccer team rejoined international competition in the 2004 Asian Cup and made a surprising run to the semifinals at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Rogge used a meeting of the Olympic Council of Asia in Doha to again appeal for the release of Iraqi Olympic officials who were kidnapped in July. Iraq Olympic Committee chairman Ahmed al-Hijiya and 30 other people were taken hostage at gunpoint during a daylight raid on a sports conference in Baghdad.
The fates of other coaches and officials is not encouraging, given the spiraling sectarian violence. In the latest episode, the bullet-riddled body of the chairman of one of country's leading soccer clubs was discovered over the weekend. He had been kidnapped by gunmen three days earlier.
An Iraqi international soccer referee also was abducted this fall as he left the soccer association's offices. The kidnappers reportedly demanded a $200,000 ransom.
Days earlier, gunmen killed a former national volleyball player, Naseer Shamil, in his shop in Baghdad. Ghanim Ghudayer, a popular soccer player and member of the Iraqi Olympic team, was kidnapped in September and has not been heard from since.
Iraq's national soccer coach, Akram Ahmed Salman, resigned in July after receiving death threats against him and his family. The national wrestling coach, a Sunni, was killed about the same time in a Shiite district of Baghdad.
Harem Ali would like his medal in the weightlifting to bring "smiles to the faces of Iraqis."
Sisters Liza and Lida Agasi hope their mere participation in beach volleyball speaks volumes to Iraq and the rest of the world.
"We came here to say that Iraq exists," they said.
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer
December 5, 2006
DOHA, Qatar (AP) -- Iraqi athletes are hardly bothered by old equipment or few places to train. There are more pressing worries -- the fear of being killed or kidnapped.
In the face of such danger, Iraq ended a two-decade absence from the Asian Games. It sent 81 athletes to Doha, men and women exhibiting a will to carry on amid the chaos. Ali Adnan Amir is at enough of a disadvantage, even without the constant peril. He is competing in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke. He is also all of 10 years old, the youngest swimmer in the competition at Doha.
Amir practices every day for about three hours after school, "but whenever there is a curfew I can't go to train so I wait for the next day" -- or the day after that.
And he's considered lucky.
Amir's home and nearby club are in Baghdad's Palestine Street, where the violence is not as great as in other parts of the city.
"We try to do proper training despite all the hardship in Baghdad," said Mohammed Sarmad, who is Amir's coach.
National air pistol shooting champion Dhiyya Hassan had to stop practicing at his regular club and set up a range at his house.
Weightlifter Harem Ali, a Kurd from the northern city of Sulaimaniya, had to switch his training base from Baghdad to the south. He won a bronze medal in the 170-pound Monday, Iraq's first medal of any kind at the Asian Games since it won five silver and two bronze in 1986 at Seoul, South Korea.
Hassan did not do well. He ranked 31st among 54 shooters, but neither he nor his coach were surprised.
"Before the war, I used to train at the club five times a week," the 44-year-old shooter said. "Now I train at home where there is no real atmosphere."
Tens of thousands of people have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Explosions, shootings and shelling are daily occurrences.
"Any fair person who looks at Iraq knows that it is impossible for the athletes to train," team spokesman Imad Nasser said. "There aren't enough clubs and there can't be reconstruction when there is war."
The Iraqi delegation arrived in Doha only two days before the opening ceremony because of a three-day curfew in Baghdad. It was imposed by the government after hundreds of people were killed last Thursday in a series of bombing attacks.
Iraq's soccer team was turned away from the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, which started seven weeks after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Kuwait's Sheik Fahd Al Sabah, the head of the Olympic Council of Asia, was killed in that invasion and Iraq was suspended by the continental authorities. With Saddam deposed, Iraq has been welcomed back.
Iraq's delegation in Qatar has hopes for medals in weightlifting, rowing and boxing.
"Every Iraqi who came to Doha is a hero even without winning," said Tiras Anwaya, head of the delegation. "Had the security situation been better, Iraqi athletes would have trained better and used better equipment. Now the athletes are here and their minds are in Baghdad thinking about explosions and killings."
Khudayer Abbas Basha, coach for the national weightlifting team, said planning has begun for some Iraqi athletes to train abroad. Such action is encouraged by the International Olympic Committee.
IOC president Jacques Rogge supports the return of Iraq's athletes to competition. The Iraqi soccer team rejoined international competition in the 2004 Asian Cup and made a surprising run to the semifinals at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Rogge used a meeting of the Olympic Council of Asia in Doha to again appeal for the release of Iraqi Olympic officials who were kidnapped in July. Iraq Olympic Committee chairman Ahmed al-Hijiya and 30 other people were taken hostage at gunpoint during a daylight raid on a sports conference in Baghdad.
The fates of other coaches and officials is not encouraging, given the spiraling sectarian violence. In the latest episode, the bullet-riddled body of the chairman of one of country's leading soccer clubs was discovered over the weekend. He had been kidnapped by gunmen three days earlier.
An Iraqi international soccer referee also was abducted this fall as he left the soccer association's offices. The kidnappers reportedly demanded a $200,000 ransom.
Days earlier, gunmen killed a former national volleyball player, Naseer Shamil, in his shop in Baghdad. Ghanim Ghudayer, a popular soccer player and member of the Iraqi Olympic team, was kidnapped in September and has not been heard from since.
Iraq's national soccer coach, Akram Ahmed Salman, resigned in July after receiving death threats against him and his family. The national wrestling coach, a Sunni, was killed about the same time in a Shiite district of Baghdad.
Harem Ali would like his medal in the weightlifting to bring "smiles to the faces of Iraqis."
Sisters Liza and Lida Agasi hope their mere participation in beach volleyball speaks volumes to Iraq and the rest of the world.
"We came here to say that Iraq exists," they said.
06 December 2006
05 December 2006
04 December 2006
AP Article: Iraq 2-0 Oman
Iraq's Asian Games soccer win greeted with volleys of celebratory gunfire
December 3, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's 2-0 win over Oman in the Asian Games' soccer tournament in Qatar Sunday was greeted by deafening volleys of celebratory gunfire in Baghdad, a city engulfed in violence that has not spared athletes and sports officials.
Iraqis, who traditionally keep firearms at their homes, are passionate about soccer and wins by the national team over the past three years have provided them with much deserved respites from the daily fare of death and destruction, bringing the ethnically and religiously diverse nation together.
"I do hope that sport will unify Iraqis in politics as well," said, Karim Jassim, a 35-year-old clothes salesman from Al-Rasheed street in Baghdad's old quarter.
The win came on the same day that the body of Hadib Majhoul, the Sunni Arab chairman of one of Iraq's leading soccer clubs, was found in Baghdad, three days after he was kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad.
Ali Rehema and Khashen Alaa scored goals to keep Iraq's slim quarterfinals hopes alive. The result left both teams with three points in Group E, three behind leader China.
December 3, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's 2-0 win over Oman in the Asian Games' soccer tournament in Qatar Sunday was greeted by deafening volleys of celebratory gunfire in Baghdad, a city engulfed in violence that has not spared athletes and sports officials.
Iraqis, who traditionally keep firearms at their homes, are passionate about soccer and wins by the national team over the past three years have provided them with much deserved respites from the daily fare of death and destruction, bringing the ethnically and religiously diverse nation together.
"I do hope that sport will unify Iraqis in politics as well," said, Karim Jassim, a 35-year-old clothes salesman from Al-Rasheed street in Baghdad's old quarter.
The win came on the same day that the body of Hadib Majhoul, the Sunni Arab chairman of one of Iraq's leading soccer clubs, was found in Baghdad, three days after he was kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad.
Ali Rehema and Khashen Alaa scored goals to keep Iraq's slim quarterfinals hopes alive. The result left both teams with three points in Group E, three behind leader China.
03 December 2006
02 December 2006
01 December 2006
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