It's good to see Al Jazeera, the station that once praised the "legitimate" resistance in Iraq, being genuinely concerned about the terrorist attacks in Iraq. However, this AJ article states the bombings struck "key government sites" without mentioning that Al Shorja (one of Baghdad's biggest markets) and a university were also attacked.
Iraqis are still awaiting strong condemnation from our Arab brothers.
From Irish Times: 'The first explosion, detonated by a suicide bomber in the southern district of Dora, killed three policemen on patrol and 12 students from a technical college. The other targets were the busy Shorja market near the health ministry, the heavily guarded labour and interior ministries, a civil court in the diplomatic district of Mansour, a training institute for judges, the fine arts institute, where 27 musicians were injured, and the Mustansariya University, founded in 1234.'
The Al Jazeera article: 'A string of bombings which struck key government sites in the capital, Baghdad, killed and injured hundreds of people.
The death toll of at least 127 accounted for more dead in a single day than the number or those killed throughout the month of November.
But the co-ordinated attacks also cast doubts on the government's ability to maintain security using the country's national forces ahead of pivotal elections scheduled for March 7, 2010.
Al Jazeera's Ahmed Janabi interviewed Wafiq al-Samaraei, a former intelligence chief under the Saddam Hussein government, and more recently the former security advisor to Jalal al-Talabani, the current Iraqi president.
Al-Samaraei currently resides in London where he is an intelligence and security analyst.
Al Jazeera: The bombings on December 8 mark the third major set of attacks to hit the capital, Baghdad, since August. Why have the attack tactics changed to become fewer in number but greater in terms of the level of death and destruction?
Wafiq al-Samaraei: After the US implemented their security plan which involved setting up and supporting the emergence of the Awakening Councils (Sunni tribal militias) in 2006, many anti-government and anti-US armed groups found that they had lost the friendly environment that allowed them to freely operate after the US-led invasion in 2003.
Iraqi security forces increased in number and deployed to almost every part of Iraq.
Obviously, these armed groups can no longer stage face-to-face battles with heavily-equipped government forces. As a result, they began to modify their tactics to rely on intelligence-gathering operations.
Before 2006, the average number of attacks was 200 daily, only 10 of which were successful. Now, the average has dropped to 20 attacks a day but some 50 per cent are successful.
What can the Iraqi government do to avoid such a large number of casualties?
Iraq now is full of security forces, but lacks a sophisticated and effective intelligence department and the attackers know that very well. That is why they started to carry out attacks that cannot be foiled by police and security forces.
The government committed several fatal mistakes, the first being that it dismissed experienced intelligence officers because they worked under Saddam.
This has ultimately weakened the country's security situation because incompetent and inexperienced people now run the intelligence department in the defence ministry.
The second mistake was that in a bid to force his party's command of security forces, Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, (who lacks military experience), has been intervening in how security forces conduct their operations. This complicates their tasks and makes them lose their focus.
The third mistake is that there are nine security departments and each is controlled by different political blocs and work for different agendas.
How are the attackers able to bypass the huge number of checkpoints in Baghdad and carry out such devastating attacks?
Al-Maliki leads a small faction inside the Daawa Party, while the security forces are loyal to many other factions. This effectively means that al-Maliki does not have loyal security forces.
When security forces do not believe in the political agenda of their government, you end up with disloyal forces that perform sloppy security work, which could include accepting bribes to look the other way.
On the other hand, the attackers seem to have good intelligence. I am saying that because they managed to carry out simultaneous attacks in different areas in Baghdad. They were able to locate the secret headquarters of the ministry of finance. It also means they have good planning and manpower.
Again, I would urge Iraqis to work together to establish an efficient intelligence force; it is the only solution to prevent such tragic attacks on innocent people.
The government has accused the deposed Baath party and al-Qaeda of being behind the recent string of attacks. Other quarters point at US military involvement and Iranian operatives. Some have even gone so far as to say the government itself has been orchestrating the attacks. What are we to believe?
Whenever there is an attack, the al-Maliki government tends to use already prepared accusations to point the finger of blame at the Baath Party or neighbouring countries.
Such quick accusations that are not based on evidence and proper intelligence work would confuse everyone, and give anti-government forces an opportunity to suspect that the security forces themselves are involved.
Ultimately, accusations that are not based on forensic hard evidence end up harming security forces and eating away at their credibility.'
Showing posts with label University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Baghdad Paper
'Not all the consequences of Islam's great expansive push were as grand, perhaps, as the confluence of some of the world's great intellectual traditions, but they proved at least as vital. One such was the acquisition of the wondrous Chinese technology of paper, an enormous aid to the intellectual enterprise just beginning to take shape at the Abbasid court. Arab tradition tells us that a prisoner of war from the battle of Talas, where in 751 Muslim forces decisively defeated those of the Tang dynasty for control of Turkic western China, brought the art of papermaking to the Central Asian city of Samarkand. The Chinese prisoner taught his captors how to produce paper from linen and hemp. The story itself is most likely apocryphal, but its general account of the flow of paper technology from China and Central Asia to the Arabs still rings true.
The result was a relatively inexpensive, resilient, and convenient medium for recording information of all kinds - from tax rolls to love poems, from philosophical tracts to star tables. Samarkand soon became the leading Muslim center of papermaking. The art also flourished in Syria, Yemen, North Africa, and the Spanish city of Jåtiva, which specialized in the production of heavy, glazed sheets. The first mention of a paper factory in Baghdad dates to 795, and the Abbasid capital later boasted a fine stationers' bazaar, the Suq al-Warraqin, featuring hundreds of stalls with high-quality wares. In fact, Baghdad paper was highly prized around the region, and some Byzantine Greek sources even refer to paper as bagdatixon, directly associating the product with the city on the Tigris.
Christian Europe, meanwhile, relied on the painstaking task of reproducing its books and maps on animal skins that had been stretched, scraped clean, and then dried. The resulting parchment was unwieldy, difficult to work with and store, and expensive to make. Paper was none of these, and its ready availability and ease of use and transport accelerated the production and spread of manuscripts throughout the Abbasid Empire and beyond. This in turn allowed the rapid and efficient interchange of ideas and knowledge, prompting demand for further scholarly works, research, and writings. Papermaking also fostered a profound culture of the book among the Arabs. Knowledge and scholarship had always been prized by Muslim society. Now, book bazaars and specialty shops became a regular feature of urban life. Book production, bookbinding, and transcription services all flourished alongside writing, research, and translation. The work of individual calligraphers was prized by discerning buyers, while many of the best copyists also served as editors or authors in their own right. Books were costly to produce, and rare editions were coveted by both intellectuals and the rich and powerful. Price gouging and forgery were not unknown hazards for the unwary, while authors at times found themselves at the mercy of scribes holding out for more money before handing over their completed manuscripts.
Patronage among the elite for authors and their books soon led to the creation of great libraries, some of which were open to the public and featured reading rooms and copying materials. In Damascus, the Umayyads had created the first Arab library, collecting Greek and Christian works on alchemy, medicine, and other sciences. The Fatimid sultans of Egypt were also great collectors of books and patrons of affiliated academies to propagate their Shi’ite beliefs. By the late tenth century, the second Fatimid ruler, al-Aziz, maintained forty rooms filled with books, with the so-called ancient sciences represented in eighteen thousand volumes. When Baghdad’s al Mustansariya madrassa*, or Islamic school, was founded in 1234, its initial endowment was said to have included eighty thousand books donated from the personal library of the caliph. Even private collections were vast, often numbering in the tens of thousands of volumes. These were commonly left as charitable bequests on the death of the owner to mosques, shrines, or schools, where they could be properly looked after and made available to scholarly readers.’
--Jonathan Lyons, The House of Wisdom
*The word “madrassa” (pronounced médrésé) means “school” in modern Arabic.
Now contrast Baghdad in 800 with Baghdad in the year 2006.
The result was a relatively inexpensive, resilient, and convenient medium for recording information of all kinds - from tax rolls to love poems, from philosophical tracts to star tables. Samarkand soon became the leading Muslim center of papermaking. The art also flourished in Syria, Yemen, North Africa, and the Spanish city of Jåtiva, which specialized in the production of heavy, glazed sheets. The first mention of a paper factory in Baghdad dates to 795, and the Abbasid capital later boasted a fine stationers' bazaar, the Suq al-Warraqin, featuring hundreds of stalls with high-quality wares. In fact, Baghdad paper was highly prized around the region, and some Byzantine Greek sources even refer to paper as bagdatixon, directly associating the product with the city on the Tigris.
Christian Europe, meanwhile, relied on the painstaking task of reproducing its books and maps on animal skins that had been stretched, scraped clean, and then dried. The resulting parchment was unwieldy, difficult to work with and store, and expensive to make. Paper was none of these, and its ready availability and ease of use and transport accelerated the production and spread of manuscripts throughout the Abbasid Empire and beyond. This in turn allowed the rapid and efficient interchange of ideas and knowledge, prompting demand for further scholarly works, research, and writings. Papermaking also fostered a profound culture of the book among the Arabs. Knowledge and scholarship had always been prized by Muslim society. Now, book bazaars and specialty shops became a regular feature of urban life. Book production, bookbinding, and transcription services all flourished alongside writing, research, and translation. The work of individual calligraphers was prized by discerning buyers, while many of the best copyists also served as editors or authors in their own right. Books were costly to produce, and rare editions were coveted by both intellectuals and the rich and powerful. Price gouging and forgery were not unknown hazards for the unwary, while authors at times found themselves at the mercy of scribes holding out for more money before handing over their completed manuscripts.
Patronage among the elite for authors and their books soon led to the creation of great libraries, some of which were open to the public and featured reading rooms and copying materials. In Damascus, the Umayyads had created the first Arab library, collecting Greek and Christian works on alchemy, medicine, and other sciences. The Fatimid sultans of Egypt were also great collectors of books and patrons of affiliated academies to propagate their Shi’ite beliefs. By the late tenth century, the second Fatimid ruler, al-Aziz, maintained forty rooms filled with books, with the so-called ancient sciences represented in eighteen thousand volumes. When Baghdad’s al Mustansariya madrassa*, or Islamic school, was founded in 1234, its initial endowment was said to have included eighty thousand books donated from the personal library of the caliph. Even private collections were vast, often numbering in the tens of thousands of volumes. These were commonly left as charitable bequests on the death of the owner to mosques, shrines, or schools, where they could be properly looked after and made available to scholarly readers.’
--Jonathan Lyons, The House of Wisdom
*The word “madrassa” (pronounced médrésé) means “school” in modern Arabic.
Now contrast Baghdad in 800 with Baghdad in the year 2006.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Blood on Textbooks
As VA Tech Mourns, Iraq Universities Know Violence's Toll
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Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty.
Books covered in blood at the scene of two explosions in front of Mustansiriya University on January 16 in Baghdad.
The nation reacted in horror as students counted their dead by the dozens, all innocent victims of an indiscriminate attack violating the sanctity of the university campus.
Today, it's Virginia Tech, the site of a horrific mass murder in which at least 33 students are confirmed dead in a shooting rampage by an as-yet unidentified gunman.
In Iraq, universities struggling to operate in the midst of a war zone have been struck repeatedly by bombings, shootings, assassinations, and abductions that have left behind hundreds of killed and wounded, victims and forced thousands of students and professors to stay away, or even leave the country.
On Monday, the same day as the Virginia Tech mass shooting, two separate shooting incidents struck Mosul University, one killing Dr. Talal Younis al-Jelili, the dean of the college of Political Science as he walked through the university gate, and another killing Dr. Jaafar Hassan Sadeq, a professor from the Faculty of Arts at the school, who was targeted in front of his home in the al-Kifaat area, according to Aswat al-Iraq.
In January, Baghdad's Mustansiriya University sufferred a double suicide bombing in January that killed at least 70 people, including students, faculty, and staff. A month later, another suicide bomber struck at Mustansiriya, killing 40.
Kidnappings of students and faculty are another all-too-common occurrence on Iraq's campuses. Members of the univerisity community have been abducted and murdered for sectarian reasons, or simply held for ransom. At a Baghdad University, one student reported to Slogger that he was abducted by sectarian thugs working in cooperation with the National Guard Forces who were supposed to be protecting the campus.
In January, students reported that violent events had threatened students that attendance rates at Baghdad University had dropped to six percent .
Earlier this month, the Dr. Qais Jawad al-Azzawi, head of the Geneva-based Committee International Committee of Solidarity with Iraqi Professors said that 232 university professors were killed and 56 were reported missing in Iraq, while more than 3,000 others had left the country after the 2003 invasion.
In January, the Ansar al-Sunna, a militant organization, distributed leaflets at threatening students and staff with violence if they did not refrain from attending university until Fall 2007, in what may have been a precursor to some of the violent attacks.
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Photo by Wathiq Khuzaie/Getty.
Students look at the scene of two explosions in front of Mustansiriya University on January 16.
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Photo by Ali al-Saadi/AFP.
Bodies of Iraqi students in the back of a police vehicle at Mustansiriya University, January 16.
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Photo by Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP.
Iraqi university students carry a banner reading "We condemn the barbaric terrorist attacks against Mustansiriyah University's students" during a demonstration outside Baghdad's Technological University, 17 January 2007.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Targeting Iraqi College Students
Why do these people blow themselves up among college students, Iraq's only hope for a brighter future? I understand why the former Baathi elite would want to destroy the new Iraq, but why does Al Qaeda do it? They must realize by now that Sunni Arabs also attend Mustansariya. But the bombing in Habaniya yesterday and their war with the Anbar tribes who are sick and tired of these abominable 'Muslims' shows that they do not necessarily care so much about their Sunni Arab brethren who are killed in their efforts to control Iraq or whatever their twisted illogical goal is. And I'm sure you know that Mustansariya has been bombed before. I just do not understand what these crimes achieve for the criminals.
Update: Al Iraqiya is reporting that the suicide bomber in the attack on Mustansariya was a woman.
At least 41 die in Iraq blast
Updated 2/25/2007 9:38 AM ET
BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck Sunday outside a college campus in Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and injuring dozens as a string of other blasts and rocket attacks left bloodshed around the city.
Most of the victims were students at the college, a business studies annex of Mustansiriyah University that was hit by a series of deadly explosions last month. At least 46 people were injured in Sunday's blast.
The wave of attacks around Baghdad came a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lauded the progress of an ongoing U.S.-Iraqi security operation seeking to cripple militant factions and sectarian killings in the capital.
The suicide attacker detonated a bomb-rigged belt near the main entrance to the college, where students were resuming midterm exams after the two-day weekend in Iraq. Police said that guards confronted the bomber as he tried to enter the college grounds.
A 22-year-old student, Muhanad Nasir, said he saw a commotion at the gate. "Then there was an explosion. I did not feel anything for 15 minutes and when I returned to consciousness, I found myself in the hospital," said Nasir, who was wounded in his head and chest.
The blast left cement walls pockmarked by shrapnel and twisted parts of the metal gate and turnstile. Parents rushed to the site and some collapsed in tears after learning their children were killed or injured. Students used rags and towels to try to mop up the blood.
The school is in a mostly Shiite district of northeast Baghdad, but does not limit its enrollment to that group. The main campus of Mustansiriyah University, located about 1 1/2 miles away, was the target of twin car bombs and a suicide blast last month that killed 70 people.
Earlier, two Katyusha rockets hit a Shiite enclave in southern Baghdad, killing at least 10, and a bomb near the fortified Green Zone claimed two lives, police said.
The Green Zone houses the U.S. and British embassies and key Iraqi government offices. The blast was about 100 yards from the Iranian Embassy, but authorities did not believe it was targeting the compound.
A separate car bombing in a Shiite district in central Baghdad killed at least one person and injured four, police said.
In the northern city of Mosul, U.S. troops killed two gunmen in a raid and captured a suspected local leader of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, the military said. Additional details were no immediately available.
Iraq's interior ministry, meanwhile, raised the toll from a suicide truck bombing in the violence-wracked Anbar province on Saturday to 52 dead and 74 injured.
The attack on worshippers leaving a mosque in Habbaniyah, about 50 miles west of Baghdad, was believed linked to escalating internal Sunni battles between insurgents and those who oppose them.
U.S. military envoys and pro-government leaders have worked hard to sway clan chiefs and other influential Anbar figures to turn against the militants, who include foreigners fighting under the banner of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The extremists have fought back with targeted killings and bombings against fellow Sunnis.
The imam of the mosque attacked Saturday had spoken out against extremists — most recently in Friday's sermon, residents said. Many people in the neighborhood work for the Iraqi military and police forces, who frequently come under militant attack.
Update: Al Iraqiya is reporting that the suicide bomber in the attack on Mustansariya was a woman.
Firefighters try to extinguish flames after a car bomb blast in Baghdad. A car bomb exploded in the mainly Shiite district of Karradah in central Baghdad, killing at least one person and injuring four, police said. By Khalid Mohammed, AP
At least 41 die in Iraq blast
Updated 2/25/2007 9:38 AM ET
BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck Sunday outside a college campus in Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and injuring dozens as a string of other blasts and rocket attacks left bloodshed around the city.
Most of the victims were students at the college, a business studies annex of Mustansiriyah University that was hit by a series of deadly explosions last month. At least 46 people were injured in Sunday's blast.
The wave of attacks around Baghdad came a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lauded the progress of an ongoing U.S.-Iraqi security operation seeking to cripple militant factions and sectarian killings in the capital.
The suicide attacker detonated a bomb-rigged belt near the main entrance to the college, where students were resuming midterm exams after the two-day weekend in Iraq. Police said that guards confronted the bomber as he tried to enter the college grounds.
A 22-year-old student, Muhanad Nasir, said he saw a commotion at the gate. "Then there was an explosion. I did not feel anything for 15 minutes and when I returned to consciousness, I found myself in the hospital," said Nasir, who was wounded in his head and chest.
The blast left cement walls pockmarked by shrapnel and twisted parts of the metal gate and turnstile. Parents rushed to the site and some collapsed in tears after learning their children were killed or injured. Students used rags and towels to try to mop up the blood.
The school is in a mostly Shiite district of northeast Baghdad, but does not limit its enrollment to that group. The main campus of Mustansiriyah University, located about 1 1/2 miles away, was the target of twin car bombs and a suicide blast last month that killed 70 people.
Earlier, two Katyusha rockets hit a Shiite enclave in southern Baghdad, killing at least 10, and a bomb near the fortified Green Zone claimed two lives, police said.
The Green Zone houses the U.S. and British embassies and key Iraqi government offices. The blast was about 100 yards from the Iranian Embassy, but authorities did not believe it was targeting the compound.
A separate car bombing in a Shiite district in central Baghdad killed at least one person and injured four, police said.
In the northern city of Mosul, U.S. troops killed two gunmen in a raid and captured a suspected local leader of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, the military said. Additional details were no immediately available.
Iraq's interior ministry, meanwhile, raised the toll from a suicide truck bombing in the violence-wracked Anbar province on Saturday to 52 dead and 74 injured.
The attack on worshippers leaving a mosque in Habbaniyah, about 50 miles west of Baghdad, was believed linked to escalating internal Sunni battles between insurgents and those who oppose them.
U.S. military envoys and pro-government leaders have worked hard to sway clan chiefs and other influential Anbar figures to turn against the militants, who include foreigners fighting under the banner of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The extremists have fought back with targeted killings and bombings against fellow Sunnis.
The imam of the mosque attacked Saturday had spoken out against extremists — most recently in Friday's sermon, residents said. Many people in the neighborhood work for the Iraqi military and police forces, who frequently come under militant attack.
Targeting Iraqi College Students
Why do these people blow themselves up among college students, Iraq's only hope for a brighter future? I understand why the former Baathi elite would want to destroy Iraq, but why does Al Qaeda do it? They must realize by now that Sunni Arabs also attend Mustansiriya.
At least 41 die in Iraq blast
At least 41 die in Iraq blast
| Updated 2/25/2007 9:38 AM ET | |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck Sunday outside a college campus in Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and injuring dozens as a string of other blasts and rocket attacks left bloodshed around the city.
Most of the victims were students at the college, a business studies annex of Mustansiriyah University that was hit by a series of deadly explosions last month. At least 46 people were injured in Sunday's blast.
The wave of attacks around Baghdad came a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lauded the progress of an ongoing U.S.-Iraqi security operation seeking to cripple militant factions and sectarian killings in the capital.
The suicide attacker detonated a bomb-rigged belt near the main entrance to the college, where students were resuming midterm exams after the two-day weekend in Iraq. Police said that guards confronted the bomber as he tried to enter the college grounds.
A 22-year-old student, Muhanad Nasir, said he saw a commotion at the gate. "Then there was an explosion. I did not feel anything for 15 minutes and when I returned to consciousness, I found myself in the hospital," said Nasir, who was wounded in his head and chest.
The blast left cement walls pockmarked by shrapnel and twisted parts of the metal gate and turnstile. Parents rushed to the site and some collapsed in tears after learning their children were killed or injured. Students used rags and towels to try to mop up the blood.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Bombs Rock Baghdad: Mustansiriyah Attacked
Bombs Rock Baghdad
Mustansiriyah University attacked, other bombs detonated in
Posted 8 hr. 31 min. ago
'Initial reports of 62 people were killed and 138 wounded outside of a major Sunni university in Eastern Baghdad near Sadr City today. Witnesses report a suicide bomber detonating an explosive vest followed by a car bomb parked outside the main gate. The explosions occurred as students were heading home and catching buses and rides. A spokesman for the university said that most of the victims were women students.
The Iraq Students and Youth League says that there have been at least 10 violent incidents in Baghdad's two largest universities from January 1st to the 7th. They also report that attendance dropped to as low as 6% at Baghdad University. The highest attendance level was 59 percent at private universities.
Universities were targeted for attack by Sunni militias who posted threatening leaflets. The response of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki was to order students and professors to attend classes. Those who did not obey were threatened with dismissal or expulsion. The al-Mustansiriya University was founded in the 13th century, built in the Iranian Isfahan style along the Tigris river and was restored in the 1980's. Today it is plastered with photos of Moqtada al Sadr's father and photos along with photos of murdered students.
Other violent incidents in Baghdad involving double IEDs, mortars, drive by shootings and discovery of dead bodies brought the total death toll to 109 on the same day that the UN calculated the annual death toll of 34,000 in 2006 an average of 93 Iraqis killed every day. At least 155 educators have been killed since the war began.'
I'm surprised the university allowed photos of Sadr on the walls. They should take those photos down, if they can. Maybe that is the problem - perhaps the university feels the pressure from the Mahdi army, which should not be the case. They should display photos like this, taken by my father in the 70s:
.jpg)
Bombs Rock Baghdad
Mustansiriyah University attacked, other bombs detonated in
Posted 8 hr. 31 min. ago
'Initial reports of 62 people were killed and 138 wounded outside of a major Sunni university in Eastern Baghdad near Sadr City today. Witnesses report a suicide bomber detonating an explosive vest followed by a car bomb parked outside the main gate. The explosions occurred as students were heading home and catching buses and rides. A spokesman for the university said that most of the victims were women students.
The Iraq Students and Youth League says that there have been at least 10 violent incidents in Baghdad's two largest universities from January 1st to the 7th. They also report that attendance dropped to as low as 6% at Baghdad University. The highest attendance level was 59 percent at private universities.
Universities were targeted for attack by Sunni militias who posted threatening leaflets. The response of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki was to order students and professors to attend classes. Those who did not obey were threatened with dismissal or expulsion. The al-Mustansiriya University was founded in the 13th century, built in the Iranian Isfahan style along the Tigris river and was restored in the 1980's. Today it is plastered with photos of Moqtada al Sadr's father and photos along with photos of murdered students.
Other violent incidents in Baghdad involving double IEDs, mortars, drive by shootings and discovery of dead bodies brought the total death toll to 109 on the same day that the UN calculated the annual death toll of 34,000 in 2006 an average of 93 Iraqis killed every day. At least 155 educators have been killed since the war began.'
I'm surprised the university allowed photos of Sadr on the walls. They should take those photos down, if they can. Maybe that is the problem - perhaps the university feels the pressure from the Mahdi army, which should not be the case. They should display photos like this, taken by my father in the 70s:
.jpg)
Bombs Rock Baghdad
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