Red Zone Baghdad My War in Iraq by Marcus Fielding

Author:Marcus Fielding [Fielding, Marcus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781921941177
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
Published: 2011-09-15T04:30:00+00:00

January–February 2009

Ashura is the holiest religious occasion for Shia Moslems. Observed on the tenth day of Muharram in the Islamic lunar calendar (7 January in the 2008 Gregorian calendar), it commemorates the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein bin Ali. Muharram is celebrated by Shias, and marks Hussein’s entrance into Karbala. On the feast of Ashura, Shias commemorate the day on which Hussein was killed in the Battle of Karbala, in October 610 in the Gregorian calendar.

Shia Moslems (also known as Shiites) believe that Hussein bin Ali was the true successor to Muhammad and that his martyrdom at the Battle of Karbala is symbolic of their suffering, oppression and struggle against tyranny. Shia Moslems around the world perform many religious and traditional observances on Ashura, including public processions, pilgrimages to Hussein’s tomb in Karbala in Iraq, self-flagellation, fasting, and public mourning. Many Sunni Moslems also mark Ashura with a day of fasting, in commemoration of Moses’s fast to thank God for freeing the Israelites.

Commemoration of Muharram and Ashura was not permitted under Saddam’s rule, as he was Sunni. Since 2003, however, Ashura ceremonies have returned to Iraq and, over recent years, an increasing number of Shia pilgrims from Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan and Tanzania have also participated. Sadly, the popularity of Ashura ceremonies has also ensured their targeting by al-Qaeda terrorists and Sunni insurgents in an effort to inflame sectarian violence.

Despite the improved security situation across Iraq in 2008, Ashura pilgrims again come under attack on Sunday, 4 January. For me, this attack was like no other, because I wrote the orders that directed the Multi-National Force–Iraq’s support to the Iraqi security forces tasked with providing security for this religious event. The attack was also more immediate and personal because I actually witnessed it, albeit from some distance. I happened to be on the balcony of the Aussie Tower when the sound of a tremendous explosion made me spin around as the building shuddered. A plume of black smoke climbed above the Baghdad roofline. The attack was several miles away, but the thought that a large number of people had probably just lost their lives filled me with sadness and a degree of anger.

Racing back to the SOC, I learned that a female suicide bomber had detonated an explosive vest laced with ball bearings, killing 36 people and wounding over 70 others participating in a religious march near the holy Kadhimiyah shrine in northern Baghdad. The woman blew herself up at a checkpoint as pilgrims commemorating the Muharram ceremonies converged on the mausoleum of Imam Mousa al-Kadhim, the most important religious site in Baghdad for Shia Moslems. Of those killed, six were Iraqi policemen and 16 were pilgrims from Iran. As always, al-Qaeda is the prime suspect for the attack, in yet another attempt to spark a resurgence in sectarian violence.

The bloody attack on 4 January serves to re-energise the Iraqi security forces, and a controversial decision is made to prevent women entering the Kadhimiyah district of Baghdad.

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