thedrifter
07-29-07, 05:42 PM
Gunfire heard across Baghdad after soccer win
At least four killed, 17 wounded in celebratory gunfire
By Bushra Juhi - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jul 29, 2007 13:53:38 EDT
BAGHDAD — Defying authorities, celebratory gunfire resounded across Baghdad after Iraq clinched its first Asian Cup soccer championship on Sunday. Iraqis welcomed a rare moment of joy that sent revelers pouring into the streets, but the shooting killed at least four.
Mosques broadcast calls for the shooting to stop, while security forces enforced a vehicle ban in the capital in an effort to prevent a repeat of car bombings that killed dozens celebrating Iraq’s progress to the finals in Asia’s top soccer tournament.
“Those heroes have shown the real Iraq. They have done something useful for the people as opposed to the politicians and lawmakers who are stealing or killing each other,” said Sabah Shaiyal, a 43-year-old policeman in Baghdad’s main Shiite district of Sadr City. “The players have made us proud, not the greedy politicians. Once again our national team has shown that there is only one, united Iraq.”
The Iraqi team, known as the “Lions of the Two Rivers” beat three-time champions Saudi Arabia 1-0 in its first appearance in the Asian Cup final.
The jubilation over the victorious run of the team has given Iraqis a welcome respite from the daily violence plaguing their nation, with men of all ages cheering and dancing in the streets after the quarterfinals and the semifinals.
But extremists seemed just as determined to destroy national pride and unity. Two car bombs tore through crowds of revelers in two Baghdad neighborhoods, killing 50 people after Wednesday’s semifinal against South Korea.
An Iraqi military official said police had foiled a suicide car bomber on Sunday by opening fire as the attacker took aim at a crowd in southwestern Baghdad. The driver was killed but no other casualties were reported, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.
Soccer fans danced and waved Iraqi flags in the streets in Baghdad, and women handed out sweets.
“This winning has united the Iraqis and nobody has been this since a long time,” Yassir Mohammed, a 35-year-old Sunni from western Baghdad as the sounds of gunshots popped around him.
People sprayed confetti from cans over the heads of jubilant crowds in the southern city of Basra.
Traffic jams clogged the streets in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. Many revelers waved both Kurdish and the Iraqi national flags in a show of unity.
Amir Mohammed, a Shiite originally from southern Iraq joined his Kurdish friend in the city center to celebrate.
“The soccer team has shown that we are united from the south to the north,” he said.
Iraqi politicians were quick to try to take advantage of the win.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office issued a statement congratulating the team and said each member would receive $10,000 for their achievements. The Shiite leader’s office said earlier that it had planned to send a Cabinet delegation to the game, but that it was not possible to organize a charter flight due to technical issues related to “the flight’s path and overflight permissions by countries through which the plane would have to cross en route to Jakarta.” The statement did not single out any countries or give more details.
Influential Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq who recently returned from Iran after cancer treatment, also welcomed the victory in an audio speech aired on the Forat TV station run by his party.
The vehicle ban — which began at 4 p.m. local time — about half an hour before the game started — and was to last through 6 a.m. Monday — would include all vehicles as well bicycles, motorcycles and carts in a bid to keep “terrorists, Sunni extremists and criminals from targeting the joy of the people over the achievements of the Iraqi national team,” Iraqi military spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi said in an announcement broadcast on Iraqi state television.
The U.S. military said it would position troops as necessary to maintain security nationwide.
The celebratory gunfire ignored strict orders from government authorities who had warned people firing weapons into the air illegally would be arrested after seven people were killed in such shooting in the aftermath of previous victories.
At least four people were killed and 17 wounded, some seriously, by the shooting that broke out after Sunday’s game according to initial reports by police and hospital officials.
Police in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Nasiriyah reported at least nine people, including three children, wounded by the gunfire. All the officials declined to be identified because they were not supposed to speak to the media.
In response to telephone questions to his office, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said celebratory gunfire was religiously prohibited to protect lives and spare people from being terrified, according to an official at his headquarters in Najaf. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Vehicle bans also were imposed in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.
In violence earlier Sunday, gunmen opened fire on shoppers in a Shiite Turkomen village southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing seven people and wounding six, police spokesman Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said. Local residents blamed al-Qaida in Iraq but the oil-rich city also has seen rising ethnic tensions amid disputes over Kurdish calls to incorporate it into their autonomous region.
Two U.S. soldiers also were killed — one by small-arms fire north of Baghdad and another in fighting in an eastern section of the capital, the military said.
A bomb also struck a minibus in eastern Baghdad, killing one passenger and wounding four others, and a policeman was shot to death on his way to work southeast of the capital, according to police.
Separately, Iraqi lawyers in Baghdad held a one-day strike to protest the violence that has struck the profession and to call on the government to provide them with protection.
———
Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad and Chris Brummitt in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
Ellie
At least four killed, 17 wounded in celebratory gunfire
By Bushra Juhi - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jul 29, 2007 13:53:38 EDT
BAGHDAD — Defying authorities, celebratory gunfire resounded across Baghdad after Iraq clinched its first Asian Cup soccer championship on Sunday. Iraqis welcomed a rare moment of joy that sent revelers pouring into the streets, but the shooting killed at least four.
Mosques broadcast calls for the shooting to stop, while security forces enforced a vehicle ban in the capital in an effort to prevent a repeat of car bombings that killed dozens celebrating Iraq’s progress to the finals in Asia’s top soccer tournament.
“Those heroes have shown the real Iraq. They have done something useful for the people as opposed to the politicians and lawmakers who are stealing or killing each other,” said Sabah Shaiyal, a 43-year-old policeman in Baghdad’s main Shiite district of Sadr City. “The players have made us proud, not the greedy politicians. Once again our national team has shown that there is only one, united Iraq.”
The Iraqi team, known as the “Lions of the Two Rivers” beat three-time champions Saudi Arabia 1-0 in its first appearance in the Asian Cup final.
The jubilation over the victorious run of the team has given Iraqis a welcome respite from the daily violence plaguing their nation, with men of all ages cheering and dancing in the streets after the quarterfinals and the semifinals.
But extremists seemed just as determined to destroy national pride and unity. Two car bombs tore through crowds of revelers in two Baghdad neighborhoods, killing 50 people after Wednesday’s semifinal against South Korea.
An Iraqi military official said police had foiled a suicide car bomber on Sunday by opening fire as the attacker took aim at a crowd in southwestern Baghdad. The driver was killed but no other casualties were reported, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.
Soccer fans danced and waved Iraqi flags in the streets in Baghdad, and women handed out sweets.
“This winning has united the Iraqis and nobody has been this since a long time,” Yassir Mohammed, a 35-year-old Sunni from western Baghdad as the sounds of gunshots popped around him.
People sprayed confetti from cans over the heads of jubilant crowds in the southern city of Basra.
Traffic jams clogged the streets in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. Many revelers waved both Kurdish and the Iraqi national flags in a show of unity.
Amir Mohammed, a Shiite originally from southern Iraq joined his Kurdish friend in the city center to celebrate.
“The soccer team has shown that we are united from the south to the north,” he said.
Iraqi politicians were quick to try to take advantage of the win.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office issued a statement congratulating the team and said each member would receive $10,000 for their achievements. The Shiite leader’s office said earlier that it had planned to send a Cabinet delegation to the game, but that it was not possible to organize a charter flight due to technical issues related to “the flight’s path and overflight permissions by countries through which the plane would have to cross en route to Jakarta.” The statement did not single out any countries or give more details.
Influential Shiite politician Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq who recently returned from Iran after cancer treatment, also welcomed the victory in an audio speech aired on the Forat TV station run by his party.
The vehicle ban — which began at 4 p.m. local time — about half an hour before the game started — and was to last through 6 a.m. Monday — would include all vehicles as well bicycles, motorcycles and carts in a bid to keep “terrorists, Sunni extremists and criminals from targeting the joy of the people over the achievements of the Iraqi national team,” Iraqi military spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi said in an announcement broadcast on Iraqi state television.
The U.S. military said it would position troops as necessary to maintain security nationwide.
The celebratory gunfire ignored strict orders from government authorities who had warned people firing weapons into the air illegally would be arrested after seven people were killed in such shooting in the aftermath of previous victories.
At least four people were killed and 17 wounded, some seriously, by the shooting that broke out after Sunday’s game according to initial reports by police and hospital officials.
Police in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Nasiriyah reported at least nine people, including three children, wounded by the gunfire. All the officials declined to be identified because they were not supposed to speak to the media.
In response to telephone questions to his office, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said celebratory gunfire was religiously prohibited to protect lives and spare people from being terrified, according to an official at his headquarters in Najaf. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Vehicle bans also were imposed in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.
In violence earlier Sunday, gunmen opened fire on shoppers in a Shiite Turkomen village southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing seven people and wounding six, police spokesman Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir said. Local residents blamed al-Qaida in Iraq but the oil-rich city also has seen rising ethnic tensions amid disputes over Kurdish calls to incorporate it into their autonomous region.
Two U.S. soldiers also were killed — one by small-arms fire north of Baghdad and another in fighting in an eastern section of the capital, the military said.
A bomb also struck a minibus in eastern Baghdad, killing one passenger and wounding four others, and a policeman was shot to death on his way to work southeast of the capital, according to police.
Separately, Iraqi lawyers in Baghdad held a one-day strike to protest the violence that has struck the profession and to call on the government to provide them with protection.
———
Associated Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad and Chris Brummitt in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.
Ellie