IRAQ: Hundreds rally in Baghdad against delay in rebuilding Samarra shrine while memorial ceremony is held in Karrada for victims of bombing

Record ID: 212724

  • Title: IRAQ: Hundreds rally in Baghdad against delay in rebuilding Samarra shrine while memorial ceremony is held in Karrada for victims of bombing
  • Date: 3rd February 2008
  • Summary: (MER1) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 3, 2008) (REUTERS): DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING IN STREET OF BAYAA NEIGHBOURHOOD CARRYING BANNERS/PICTURES OF DEMOLISHED DOME OF THE AL-ASKARI SHRINE IN SAMARRA AND A GIANT IRAQI FLAG BANNER DISPLAYED IN DEMONSTRATION DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING LARGE BANNER READING "WE WILL REBUILD YOU SAMARA" AND CARRYING GIANT IRAQI FLAG DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING WOMEN CLAD IN BLACK TAKING PART IN DEMONSTRATION VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS LARGE BANNER READING "WE REBUILD YOU.. WE REDEEM YOU... WE PROTECT YOU SAMARRA" (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DEMONSTRATOR NAFI' AL-BAKHATI SAYING: "This is the third (second) anniversary which is passing now despite continued promises from the government. We believe that the bombing of the two al-Askari imams is the main reason behind the absence of security in the country but no one is paying attention to this issue. So this crowd has had to take to the streets in order to denounce this delay in rebuilding (the shrines of ) the two (shrines of the ) al-Askari imams, peace be upon them." VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS BEATING THEIR CHESTS AND MARCHING
  • Embargoed: 18th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVACD03HP1TPLLB7E27QNLOINN1T
  • Story Text: Hundreds of people take to the streets of Baghdad to protest a delay in rebuilding the bomb-damaged wreckage of a revered Shi'ite shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra. In Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood, the local council holds a ceremony to honour the memory of residents of the area who were killed in two powerful blasts in the area last year.
    Hundreds of people took to the streets of Baghdad on Sunday (February 3) to denounce a delay in rebuilding the bomb-damaged wreckage of a revered Shi'ite shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra.
    Carrying giant Iraqi flags and banners and chanting slogans against terrorism, around 500 hundreds people from Baghdad's southern neighbourhoods of Bayaa and al-Amil districts took part in the march and called on the government to start reconstruction work on Samarra's Golden shrine.

    "This is the third (second) anniversary which is passing now despite continued promises from the government. We believe that the bombing of the two al-Askari imams (high-ranking Muslim clerics) is the main reason behind the absence of security in the country but no one is paying attention to this issue. So this crowd has had to take to the streets in order to denounce this delay in rebuilding (the shrines of ) the two (shrines of the ) al-Askari imams, peace be upon them," said one of the protesters, Nafi al-Bakhati.
    The bombing of the shrine in February 2006, which wrecked the shrine's famous golden dome but did not damage the minarets, was a turning point for Iraq, unleashing sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands of people. The two minarets of the shrine were later blown up in a second attack by suspects al-Qaeda militants in June, 2007.
    In the wake of the 2006 bombing at Samarra, Iraq's leaders have often voiced fears that a similar attack could push the country over the edge into all-out sectarian civil war. Revered cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shi'ite religious figure, called for restraint.
    The Golden Shrine is one of the four major Shi'ite shrines in Iraq.
    Other major sites are in the holy Shi'ite cities of Najaf and Kerbala and the Baghdad district of Kadhimiya, mainly home to Shi'ites.
    Two of the 12 revered Shi'ite imams are buried in the Samarra shrine -- Imam Ali al-Hadi, who died in 868 and his son, the 11th imam, Hasan al-Askari, who died in 874.
    Separately, the local council of Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood on Saturday (February 2) held a ceremony to honour the memory of its residents who were killed in two powerful blasts in the neighbourhood.
    The ceremony was held at the scene of the violent explosion caused by a truck bomb on July 7 last year which resulted in the killing of more than 145 civilian residents.
    Pictures of several young men killed in the July blast, along with portraits of some victims killed in another bombing earlier this year, were put on display while relatives gathered nearby and recited verses from the Quran and lit candles.
    The memorial ceremony was funded by residents of Karrada who intend to make the ceremony an annual event.

    "This ceremony is held to honour the memory of the martyrs, the martyrs of Karrada, and the martyrs of (Imam) al-Hussein. They (the neighbourhood council) collected the funds from all the residents of the neighbourhood with the idea being that this ceremony will take place every year like Ashura. But this is the first year and the people have come to see all of the martyrs that have been killed by terrorists," said Latif Shandal, whose son Murtadha was killed in the truck bombing on July 7, 2007.

    "He was all we had," said one elderly woman of her grandson, who was killed in the truck bombing.

    "We have been left without anyone to support us. I've been a frequent visitor to the cemetery for the past 20 years and now he (my grandson) has made me continue to go back there," she said as she stood crying before her grandson's picture.
    Karrada is a populous Shi'ite area in central Baghdad.
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