The Americans Are Coming

It was the most bloody, awful and sorrowful afternoon in the history of Baghdad since its foundation, when shouts broke the silence in Palestine hotel in April 8, 2003 by foreign journalists who were gathered there till the end of the war, they were shouting, “The Americans are coming.”

I was upstairs and could not understand the meaning of these shouts, in fact, I felt as if I was shot in my heart, “ No.” I do not want to hear that, but the shouts were getting louder and louder and the journalists were in a hurry to go down and see what was going on inside, they could not wait for the elevator, they took the stairs and that was what I did too.

I went down but in fact slowly because I needed time to grasp the idea that the Americans reached Baghdad and the war was finished, but what were all these conferences held by Sahaf every day in which he was confirming the Iraqi army capability in confronting the US assaults and even killing US soldiers, whom he used to call” Iluwij”.

Sahaf came early morning that day, he was so upset and even reproached Al-Jazeera correspondent for his coverage but he went upstairs on the roof of the hotel to make live statement though the shootings were so heavy, he was in a hurry, in a way, when we got close to him to listen to what he was saying, he was almost finished.

I saw one of my colleagues who live at the other side of the river, he was very sad when he was telling me that it was hard for him to come to his work today as the atmosphere outside was very gloomy and some people told him that they had seen US tanks in Baghdad.

But, I did not know that it would be so fast like that, though three foreign journalists killed in the morning by US tank fires, the pretext was the US soldier thought the foreign cameraman who had set up his camera on the terrace of his room was carrying an RPG, though since the first day of the war, the US forces as well as British knew that Palestine hotel was allocated for foreign journalists, but sure, they did not want these photographers to take pictures for them while they were sweeping Baghdad and killing any person they found in the streets.

In the same morning, US warplanes launched a feverish raid against the republican palace which was on the other side of the river, I could see that from the balcony, defences of the palace which were at the bank of the river answered the fire, the engagement lasted for like half an hour then fire sat up in the trenches of the palace’s defences and did not see or hear any bullet fried from their side.

Few foreign photographers tried to go near the opposite bank of the river to take pictures but they were chased by the people who were working at the press centre at that time, and in fact a hand battle broke out between one of them and a photographer who wanted to stay to take pictures and refused to get inside the hotel.

“ The Americans Are Coming.” Shouts continued till I got to the reception of the hotel, I stepped back when I saw, for the first time in my life, a US soldier in front of me, really he was like a monster, with his uniform, equipment, helmet and fearful arm.

I looked around, I saw some of the Iraqi men who were working with foreign journalists, they were crying, I could see tears in their eyes, they were Shiite and Sunni, but they were so sad for that scene,” Yes,” we were so scared during the war as we had to go out to cover the US bombardment to Baghdad and see the causalities in the hospitals while rockets and bullets were above our heads, we were nearly to be killed many times, but that was more bearable to us rather than to see our country invaded by the Americans.

I wanted to go out to go home to cry there but when I raised my eyes, I saw a giant US tank which was parked there to protect the foreign journalists from looters. It was not a tank, it was like a ship, very high and pompous, I look at it and said to myself, “ How many Iraqis have been killed by you since the beginning of the war till now?

At that moment, I envied all the Iraqis who died during the war and before the war, because they died before they see that shameful scene, their dear Baghdad, their dear Iraq was gone, they, who refused to leave Baghdad and their country just because they love it and they died in its love, they were lucky not to see that bloody evening when US soldiers were everywhere in Baghdad streets, except in Adhamiyia, people there were still fighting for their beloved country.

“ The Americans Are Coming.” The most awful and harsh sentence I had ever heard in my life because I had a strange feeling that the true sentence was supposed to be “ The Disaster Is Coming.”

Soon, looting campaign began in Baghdad blessed by the Americans, ministries and governmental buildings were burned and people were talking about Kuwaitis who came by themselves to do that in revenge of 1991 war.

But where was the Iraqi government? I kept asking that question, there was not a single statement to clarify to us that ambiguous situation.

Soon, power went off in Baghdad, all Baghdadis were in astonishment because during the war they had power, but why when the Americans came power cut off?

Summer was creeping weather was getting hot but no power at all, I went with few journalists to see Uday palace in Adhamiyia occupied by the US forces, we were four, so, to spare time, I told the journalists, “ you can go inside I will wait outside for you.”

There was a US soldier standing outside, he thought I was foreign too, so he began to speak with me in English, one of the question I had asked him, “ why do not the US forces repair power for Iraqis, they would be very happy.”

He said, “ Look, we won’t fix power, water and other basic things for the Iraqis, in away they would have luxurious and comfortable life and begin to think of attacking us, we want to keep them busy with these things!!!!!!”


A month later, I had to do a story in Dura district in Baghdad, I came close to a big house with farm there, I asked a man who seemed to be the guard about the owner of the house, he said “ This is the house of a Palestinian leader, his name is Abu Al-Abbass, it was granted to him by Saddam Hussein, but just at the last day of the war when the Americans entered Baghdad, a group of Israeli soldiers raided the house and took Abu Al-Abbass with them. I did not see him since that time, but Iam still guarding the house”

Later on, I heard that Abu Al-Abbass had died in the prison, of course out of torture, but what were the Israeli doing here if the Americans came to liberate the Iraqis?!!!!!

Iraq After Liberation

Tribal leaders and well-known figures of Sader city were heading to the big mosque for cleric Hussein Al-Sader in Kadhimiyia city in Baghdad in the summer of 2004, tens of them were gathering there waiting for a meeting with Sayed Hussein they had requested to find a solution for the fight that broke out between Sayed Muqtada Al-Sader followers and US forces.

After few hours, Sayed Hussein arrived to the mosque and sat in hall which was furnished with beautiful carpets to listen to his visitors, they were all begging him to meddle in that big problem and convince Sayed Muqatada to stop that fierce fight because Sayed Hussein is considered the head of Al-Sader family in Iraq and he is highly respected by the family.

One of the Sheikhs told Sayed Hussein, “ I have lost two of my young sons, and might lose the third while I do not believe in what they are fighting for, I did my best to convince them to give up that but could not, because they are so young and easily to be brain washed.”

Another man raised to say, “ If the case limited only on the young guys, followers of Sayed Muqtada, it is fine with us, but the problem is that once a bullet fired against the Americans in Sader city, their forces would begin random shooting that kill even the innocent people who do not have any hand in that.”

A third one said, “ I had already lost two of my sons in the wars in time of Saddam and did not believe, that with the toppling of Saddam, that we would have no more wars and can keep our sons, but now again Iam suffering because of Mahdi army, and might lose one of my sons at any moments.”

Sayed Hussein promised all the men who were in the mosque that he would do his best to stop the bloodshed in Sader city and live up to their hopes in convincing Sayed Muqtada to ask his followers to stop attacking the Americans.

In fact, the fight broke out first between the followers of Sayed Muqtada Al-Sader and Sayed Ali Sistani about how much quota each followers should get out of the income of Najef and Karabla shrines, a lot of them died in sever fighting erupted between them till the US forces interfered to kick out Mahdi army from Najef, but during that, daily fight in Sader city was common between Mahdi army and US forces which claimed lives of a lot of the people who live in Sader city.

I was listening to one of the men who was talking to his colleague in that session and seemed to have deep knowledge about the reason behind that dispute in Najaf regarding the shrines income, the man said, “let me explain that to you so that you can have a full understanding to the issue, not having a piece from here and other from there.”

“ In time of Saddam, Saddam wanted the Shiite Marjiyia in Iraq to be led by an Arab Shiite family not Iranian as usual, the choice was on Sader family, because It is the most famous Alawi Shiite in Iraq and its members are Arab not Iranian.

When Sayed Al-Sader, the father, became the top Marjiyia for Shiite in Iraq, part of his duty was to renew the residency licences for the non-Arab Shiite Marjiyia in Iraq, particularly in Najef, they were Iranians, Pakistanis and Afghanis. The process was these residency licences to be renewed every four years.

But Sayed Sader, the father, refused to renew the licences for all the non-Arab Shiite clerics in Najef including Sayed Ali Al-Sistani, which means that he had to go back to Iran because he had Iranian ID and he refused to get an Iraqi nationality offered to him By Saddam Hussein who sent him one of his representatives at the presidency office to grant him that with a cheque of 5 million ID.

But Sayed Ali Al-Sistani refused the Iraqi nationality because he believes that Islam came for all the people not to a particular nation and does not admit nationalities.

Tribal leaders in Najef decided to go to Sayed Sader, the father, and mediate for Sayed Ali Al-Sistani to let him stay in Najef as he could not go to Iran and because they highly respect him.

Sayed Sader, the father, accepted the mediation and kept Sayed Sistani in Najef, but you can see the relation was not good since that time.”

Then, the man asked him about Mahdi army and how it was formed, the man answered like that, “ few days after the end of the war of 2003, when Saddam Hussein government collapsed and the Americans controlled Iraq, a representative from Iranian Intelligence
“ Itila’at” approached a top Shiite cleric from Sader family and presented this offer to him.

“ If you can recruit 6000 man from your followers to work for us, we will allocate $3 million for you every month and will provide them with equipments and training.”

The cleric answer was like that, “ Look, Iam an old man, Iam a cleric not a politician, so, your offer is rejected.”

Few weeks later, Mahdi army was formed instead.”

Why they call it “ Mahdi” army? It was another question.

The man said “ Al-Mahdi is the 12th Imam whom Shiite believe that he would appear when the corruption, killing and all bad things dominate the world, he would come to safe the world and flourish peace, and if you want to speed up his appearance, try to do all these things Mahdi army is doing now because they want him to come as soon as possible..”

The Civil War

I was one of few Iraqi journalists who had the chance to cover the war of 2003, with tens of foreign journalists who came from all over the world to do the same thing and report about “ The Shock And Awe” as it was used to be called,then turned to be “ The Liberation War.”

part of the conversations, I used to have with some of the foreign journalists about the future of Iraq after the war, they used to tell me that soon the US forces would sweep to Baghdad and occupy it, for me, my mind had always denied the idea of Iraq would be defeated though the showdown was very tough, I love Iraq, it is my country, I have always wanted it to be the best in the world, so, I was always in quarrel with one of the foreign journalists who used to listen to BBC Radio and come to me, “ The US forces are 500 Km far of Baghdad and they are progressing.” I answered him, “ These are your dreams so that you can write more stories, we will keep fighting till the last drop of blood we have for the sake of our dear Baghdad.”

The journalist told me, “ look, I will tell you what will happen and it is up to you to believe or not, the US forces will occupy Iraq soon, than you will have a governmental council, followed by elections, constitution in which Iraq will be divided to federalisms, death squads will be formed by Iraqi opponents militias who were outside of Iraq and trained by special US teams to kill Iraqis who resist the occupation, doctors, professors, senior officers, the elite of the Iraqis, then the country will slip to a civil a war between Sunni and Shiite which will last for years.”

“ This is the scenario that is drawn to Iraq, if you do not know.” I asked him how did he know that, he said “ Some CIA leaked reports .”

With all the horrible scenes of the war, the so many innocent Iraqis who were killed by the daily US bombing to Baghdad, with all the wounded who were dying slowly on the ground of the hospitals, I had always even refused to discuss the conception of civil war in Iraq because of the intimate relation that used to link Sunni and Shiite in this country, in our neighbourhood, with my own friends and even relatives.

I told all the journalists who were talking about civil war in Iraq that they were dreaming, “ This would never happen here, it might happen any where in the world but not in Iraq.”

Even the common Iraqis whom we used to ask when we meet them in the streets or in their houses about the possibility of civil war, they would be upset immediately and refused to talk about the subject.

But day by day, with my continuous coverage, I was surprised that all the stages that journalist told me about were coming true, though I always hear,that the Americans had a plan to invade Iraq but did not have any to handle Iraq post war, but it seemed to be a systematic plan to destroy Iraq under the slogan of “ Reconstruction.”

I still remember that when the foreign journalist wanted me to ask an Iraqi person, we were interviewing, whether he is Sunni or Shiite, I was not able to ask him that directly because I knew it was an odd question, so I used to put it at the end or get an answer by asking the man some indirect questions by which I can figure whether he is Sunni or Shiite, just because I knew that such question was very sensitive and I should be very careful in approaching it.

But, soon, I found myself dare to ask this question when Shiite processions to Imam Ali and Hussein shrines started to be targeted, followed by Kadhimiyia shrine, hundreds of Shiite people killed and wounded in these series of bombardment.

Then, the trial of Saddam began, rift between Sunni and Shiite built up from the way both sects viewing the trial, Shiite believe, it is fair, while Sunni believe, it is a trial for them personally and won’t accept to be humiliated like that.

Scandals of ministry of Interior private prisons for torturing and killing Sunnis showed on surface soon after that, stories of death squads wearing uniforms of the ministry of Interior, snatching, kidnapping and killing Sunnis became common among people and journalists, I visited one of the Human Rights organization in Baghdad, more than 1000 family were recorded who had one or two and even three persons who had been kidnapped and killed by death squads, and more than 750 person were missing.

It was a latent fire, till the 22nd of Feb, when I got a phone call from Samara at 8,30 in th morning, it was Wednesday, the man who contacted me said” Something terrible happened today, the Askariyia Shrine is bombed and Samara is in great shock.”

I thought the man must get mad, why the shrine would be targeted? The telephone rang again, it was the same man, it seemed he understood my surprise in a way that I did not ask him for details as I usually do, he said” What, you do not believe me, I swear the shrine is levelled and I’m standing beside it and only God knows, what will happen today?”

Few hours later, events started to escalate in Baghdad, news of Sunni mosques attacked by Shiite militias, burned and their Imams killed began to flood from all over Baghdad, in a way, I decided to go home early, at least, die with the family.

When I went out, in the centre of Baghdad to have a taxi to drop me home, I looked around, people faces were strange to me, I could feel the expectation of something wrong would happen soon on the faces of the few people who were in the street, they were in a hurry to find a transport to go home, I could hear gunfire, here and there.

After losing hope in finding a taxi, I found one who was heading close to my neighbourhood and that is why he accepted to take me with him, he said “ It is better to stay home today, news are not promising, we might be stopped and killed at any moment.”

Just close to our neighbourhood, the main road was blocked by a demonstration for Shiite people who were denouncing the bombing, a man was carrying a gun on his shoulder came running towards us, shouting “ Go away, Go away, or I will shoot you.” The driver told him, he just wanted to pass, he told him, “ You will be shot because they will think that you are a suicide bomber.”

We turned to another street, trying to reach home by any means as the driver insisted to drop me in front of my house because it was fearfully unsafe.

I turned my face to direct the driver how to take another route to my house, but I was stunned by the scene of so many men who were wearing black suits, some of them even were bare foot , carrying guns and deployed everywhere, signs of anger were on their faces.

They were in a state of war, few of them came running toward the car and ordered the driver to leave immediately, he pointed to me, they shouted even louder, “ Get out of here, or you will be killed,” I told him, “It is ok with me I will go on foot.”

With every street, I passed by, two or three men in black suit with their guns in state of alert, and ready to fight, but fight whom, I did not know, that was one of the most unforgettable scene I have saved in my memory about Baghdad, I have not seen such thing along the three years after the war.

Soon, dense smoke began to mount in our neighbourhood and news broke out, Mahdi army supported by the Iraqi police and army burned all the Sunni mosques and detained their Imams in our neighbourhood, Sunni families gathered to see what they would do if the situation got more worse and began to think of carrying arms with them all the time, “ I must kill one or two of them before they would come to kill me.”one of the men said while he was holding his arm tightly.

Some Iraqis

When I talk with some Iraqis who want you see the white black and the black white just because they believe in that, other people have to do the same and cancel their thinking and put off all their senses so that they can grasp what these people are saying.

For example when you say, the Iraqi government is not good and it is better for its members to step down because they can't improve the security in the country, they will tell you,” No, the Iraqi government is good but it is these terrorists, Ba’athists and Sunnis who want to foil this government just because they lost their position with the toppling of Saddam.”

I said," I agree with you, but can you tell me, what kind of a government is this if it is, at least, can not make the capital where the governments exists safe." may be it is difficult for the government to control the east and the south and the out skirts of Baghdad but what about the heart of Baghdad?

For a year and a half now, everybody in Baghdad is talking about the death squads and the families of the victims are talking about the abductors who prove to be from Bader brigade and Mahdi army and wear the uniforms of the ministry of Interior and are allowed to move in the time of the curfew, but when you tell these people about these facts, they said,” this is not right, they even do not exist and if they are real, they are doing well to protect us of terrorists, why they do not coem to Shiite families?”

For a year and a half and with hundreds proofs from Iraqis and Americans, still the Iraqi government can’t decide whether these militias exist or not and even if they exist,talk here and there that the government will do nothing about that because these militias are supported by the government members themselves.

So, what can the individual Iraqi do, who does not work for any political party but just want to live? Where shall he go? Go to Syria or Jordan, he needs a lot of money and has to find a work where the Jordanians and Syrians themselves are desperate for, and you can feel how the Jordanian national is upset of the situation in Jordan because the Iraqi are buying houses and flats there and prices are up sharply, in a way, a Jordanian family can not buy a meter now.

But, it is really killing me, why should the Iraqi leave his country while he has this huge country? Why should he be an emigrant just because this useless government can survive?

In all world countries, if you want to buy a house you pay money except in Iraq you have to pay your blood.

Clashes broke out again between Mahdi army in Abu Saifain neighbourhood and Al-Fadhil in Baghdad which is inhabited by Sunni families, bodies are scattered everywhere in the heart of Baghdad and neither the ministry of Interior nor the ministry of Defence dare to stop that, simply because Mahdi army work for the government, while the civilian have no one to protect them just because they are Sunni and they do not deserve to live and simply because all of them are terrorists as other people say.

When you say, where is the money allocated for reconstruction and why we can’t see any reconstruction? They will say, "the government really want to work but these Sunni terrorists, they do not let it do that." I say, ok, I agree with you, but what about the south? It is dominated by Shiite, no Sunni terrorists exist there,so, why the government did not put a brick there? did not find chances of work for these Iraqis who live in the southern provinces? and whenever they have a chance they demonstrate against the terrible living situations they are passing through and for three years of the liberation, they did not see any improvement."

I was talking with a woman whom her son was executed because he was in Da’wa party and her husband can’t be found since 1991, he was a member in the up rising in the south, as he was dreaming of Islamic state, the woman who lives in Hilla and she is Shiite said the Shiite demonstrators were shouting in the up rising, “ We do not want Saddami ruling we want Islamic ruling.” But later on he was captured by the security forces and she could find even his body and her other son was able to ran to the Saudi camp and stay there for five years, then went to the US.

The woman was complaining that she was happy when Da’wa party installed the power in Iraq, thinking that she would be remembered by the party for the scarifies her son and husband do and she, as a mother, and may be a representative of the party would come to ask about her, but she is really disappointed that her son and husband have been forgotten and now she only gets the salary for her martyred son in the Iraqi-Iranian war, though there is an attempt to cut it because parties who are allies to Iran,think that these Iraqi martyrs,their families do not deserve to be paid as they were fighting the Islamic republic of Iran so, tehy were traitors.

The Paradise Of The Grave

Any government in the world with such killing rate like every day in Iraq, would declare its resignation immediately as an admission of its failure in providing its people with the basic requirement any people need to live like human beings.

With all this vivid failure on all levels and the best indication for it, is the escalation of violation and increase of number of Iraqis who are fleeing the hell of Iraq, with all this shortage in fuel, power an water and endless list of red marks the Iraqi government gets for its shameful performance, still all its members, from the president till the MPS whom quarrelling all the time, all of them are clinging to their chairs to the last breath.

Moreover, when they show on TV, they will talk about the achievement of the National Unity government though any statement aired by the president, will be crossed by the premier or in the opposite, and same with ministers and the MPS, as if they do not meet and agree about a unified speech, but again, it does not matter, Iraqis are busy with their victims, their IDS, their names, their displacement, their thinking of getting up early in the morning to stand in the line for gas, though every month if not every week, they will hear in the news about the soaring level of Iraqi oil exportation and revenues.

I really do not know what the minister of Defence, minister of Interior and minister of National Security are doing? do they read the news? do they bother themselves to look at the statistics of the forensic department and think of the Iraqi people for a moment not of their personal interest and admit their failure in putting an end for this brutal killing.

Saddam was accused of his obsession with the presidency chair and there is no power can move him out except the American power who came to save the Iraqi people, but now, all these people who are in power, are supported by the Americans, in the contrary, the only power that can move them out, is the departure of the US forces, they will runaway within a minute, simply because of the non-loyalty of the Iraqi army and police to the government, but to their ethnic minorities and clerics.

A Shiite guy went to the forensic department to get the body of his relative who was killed in Ba’quba market just because he is Shiite, in fact he was slaughtered, he told me that for his surprise that while he was waiting to get the body of his relative, he saw a horrible scene that till now he can’t forget or believe, he said, he saw a body of a Sunni man who was killed by putting a long nail in his head to come down out of his chin, both of his hands were cut and put on his head.

With all these barbarian scenes, I even began to doubt that Iraq is the land of Mesopotamia where the first civilization in the world found, the first land to invent means of writing and put laws to organize the different types of relations among its people.

I really doubt that those killers are the offspring of those great ancient Iraqi people as they do not have any normal aspect shared by common human being to deal with others.

Leaflets flooded Ba’quba, telling people that cucumber and tomato are harqm and any body seen carrying them together or making a salad out of them, he will be killed, in addition to cabbage, and the reason is that they represent sexual features.

Women are obliged to wear abaya and cover their faces not to wear ordinary hijab, otherwise they will be killed too and I think soon we will go back to the habit of killing females as soon as they born to get rid of their problems.

Any person will be seen smoking cigarettes, he will be warned and if he did it again he will be killed, a guy was smoking in Ba’quba when he was caught by some gunmen who put off the cigarette in his mouth and warned him of doing that again because they wouldl make him smoke in the grave.

Colleges are warned there too if they start the new year while still they have the mixed system of studying, boys and girls, either they separate them or professors and students will be legitimate target.

All of that, and the Iraqi government still talks about its unique achievement with such a record time to send the Iraqis who elected them as soon as possible to the paradise of the graves where they can have peace and democracy without exerting any effort or sustain any fear and where they can fulfil all their dreams.

It is really shameful, the world silence towards the daily slaughtering of the Iraqis and it can't gather to find a solution for the Iraqi problem though most of the world armies gathered within few months to come and destroy Iraq in 2003.

In A Town Called Mahmoudiyia

In a town called Mahmoudiyia, south of Baghdad, people used to live together in peace for ages, no one ever there raised the question of Sunna or Shiite, locals are busy with farming, some of them joined Mahmoudiyia factory for bikes, but the town became busier with the establishment of Al-Q’aq’a Compound there during the eighties.

The compound itself is an image for the intimate relations among the people there, as you can find, Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Christians families work and live together.

After the US invasion, troubles engulfed the town, car bombs, IEDS, kidnapping and assassinations, still Sunni and Shiite kept living together because they believe that common Iraqis did not dare to do that to cause harm to their own people.

After the formation of Al-Ja’aferi government and the disastrous ministry of Interior who brought all the Shiite militias, equipped them with weapons and uniforms to kill with official approval, Mahmoudiyia became a hell for its people, particularly the Sunnis.

I was talking with one of the woman who lives in this compound for years and asked her about the situation, she said “ I have been there for long years, but have not face such terrible bloody days since the coming of Al-Mahdi army here.”

Al-Mahdi army is making ethnic cleansing in this compound, any Sunni family there has to leave, the family will be lucky if it receives a warning or its main apartment door blown up by an IED but the great disaster is if one of the family member falls in the hand of this militia, after few hours his body will be find in the trash.

The woman who is Shiite but her son in law is Sunni said “ My son in law left the compound after two of his Sunni colleagues killed just because they are Sunnis, my daughter still with me but neither she can go to him nor he can come to see here because we every day he is hiding somewhere.”

Three men who work at the compound went to the bring the salary for June, two of them were Sunni and the third was Shiite when they caught by Mahdi army, the Shiite man was released but the two Sunni bodies found later on somewhere in the town.

Fake checkpoints everywhere in the town, any man with Sunni name or tribe will be kidnapped and killed immediately after a course of torture, Sunni men are not allowed to work in the main market otherwise they will face the same destiny.

I have contacted the representative of the Islamic party in Mahmoudiyia, Sheikh Sa’eed As-samara’i to inquire about the family of the Iraqi girl who was raped and killed with her family by the US forces and the man promised to help me get in touch with her relatives.

The second day, Sheikh Sa’eed was in his way from Mahoudiyia to Baghdad when he stooped by this militia who opened his suitcase and when they found his turbine, they shot him immediately and began to dance with his turbine.

Omer is only 13 yr boy, his bad luck put him in the hand of this militia, when they found that his name was Omer, they took him to an isolated place and dug a hole, in which they buried him till his neck, then the members of the militia began to shoot on his head till they smashed it, just because he is Sunni and his name is Omer.

Now, this militia is kicking Sunni out of their mosques in Mahmoudiyia after killing their Imams and chasing any one prays in them, threats are flooding on Sunni families to leave their homes, farms and shops or they will be killed soon.

Mahmoudiyia must be exclusive to Mahdi army and followers of Al-Albait, as if the other Iraqi Moslems are followers of the devil and they do not deserve to live with Mahdi army.

Thank You All My Dear Friends

To the all dear colleagues and readers who have never stopped inquiring about reason behind the halt in publishing and wanted to make sure that I was safe and fine, I like to thank you all and voice to you my great appreciation.

It is really a big impulse to me to keep writing because withen this period of time that I have stopped, I could evaluate my blog and whether it has its own readers or not.

I do not want to bother you with the reasons behind the stoppage in publishing and honestly they were out of my hand but I promise you here that I will start writing again soon and I have alot of stories to tell you about from Iraq and outside of Iraq.

thank you all again

Ishtar