The Big Holiday

  Between the National Assembly and the Shiat (in Arabic it is spelled Shi3a) we had a really long holiday from Monday to Sunday. The National Assembly ended with the only result to meet again on Sunday, very resourceful! The Shiat have a yearly occasion, which I don't much about, but in this occasion they usually travel from Baghdad to Karbala ON FOOT. For that reason, the streets were filled with law enforcers in their different forms to prevent any attacks, and it is costumed in Iraq that a BMW is usually used in any attacks because it is very fast and make a splendid way of escape, so BMWs were searched thoroughly. Anyway the reason for such a long holiday is that the Shiat start traveling on Monday to reach Karbala on Wednesday, so the streets were crowded and travelling by car became almost impossible. The National Assembly took place on Wednesday too. Later we heard from TV and to be exact from the Sharqia TV channel that Thursday was to be an official holiday, because it was between two holidays.

  Just a while ago, I heard from the same channel the news about the explosions at AL-MALWIA, which is an ancient minaret built in 852, and is about 100 KM north of Baghdad. Seems that US snipers were stationed there until the last week. Locals said that this might have been done to prevent the snipers from using it again, what a waste! The minaret guard said that he woke up on the sound of an explosion and he saw some of the rocks falling down. That minaret is a landmark in Islamic architecture and one of the great archaeological treasures of Iraq, and I don't think that it should have been used for military purposes in the first place, or to be targeted for it.

  Well this is interesting, Raghda , and Dalia have finally remembered that they are blogging and were generous enough to post. By the way I don't know why I haven't seen it before but Dalia has a post titled Samara with pictures of the minaret, 2nd and 4th one are the targeted minaret. I have searched the web but couldn't find any pictures of the minaret after the explosion. Maybe later.