Sport triumphs over politics ... thousands of Iraqis, including security forces, defied a strict government ceasefire order to welcome their football squad's Asian Cup victory with a barrage of gunfire.
Hail of gunfire welcomes Iraq Asian Cup victory
By Paul Tait in Baghdad
July 30, 2007 02:00am
VOLLEYS of gunfire rang out across Baghdad overnight as Iraqis celebrated their football team's Asian Cup victory, a rare moment of joy and unity in four years of relentless strife.
“We achieved the dream. Allahu Akbar! (God is greatest),” a crying fan told Iraqiya state television after Iraq's 1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in Jakarta.
Authorities earlier imposed vehicle curfews and security forces went on heightened alert after 50 people were killed by suicide attacks against fans after Iraq's semi-final victory on Wednesday.
Iraqis ignored orders by security and religious leaders not to fire into the air. Their team, who wore black arm bands in memory of the dead, had never before made it to the Asian Cup final.
Spontaneous celebrations broke out in religiously mixed Baghdad as well as in the Shiite south and the Kurdish north. The team featured players from all Iraq's main communities - Shiite and Sunni Arab as well as Kurdish.
Fans cried and danced in the streets, waving their shirts in the air and hugging.
Television presenters, draped in the red, white and black Iraqi flag, dissolved into tears and CNN broke into its normal programming to announce the win.
Iraqi security forces detained two men in a car packed with explosives in eastern Baghdad not long before the match started, police said. They were accused of trying to target football fans.
Baghdad's chief military spokesman, Brigadier General Qassim Moussawi, had said security forces were preparing for “expected terrorist attacks” on fans.
Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, also issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against firing weapons into the air, a traditional tribal celebration. Two people were killed by falling bullets on Wednesday.
Shops began emptying in Baghdad and office workers went home hours early to watch the final.
The Iraqi Accordance Front, parliament's main Sunni Arab bloc, put off a crisis meeting to discuss its boycott of the government because of the match. Parliament announced the players would be rewarded, win or lose.
Vendors across Iraq reported bumper sales of t-shirts, team shirts and pictures of the team, as well as Iraqi flags.
“The way the Iraqi team has played makes us very happy. They succeeded in unifying the Iraqi people, which the politicians failed to do,” said Baqir Mohsin, a businessman in the southern Shiite city of Basra.
Additional reporting by Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk and Aseel Kami in Baghdad
Iraqi soldiers celebrate in Najaf, 160 km (99 miles) south of Baghdad July 29, 2007, after the Iraqi team won the final game of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup soccer tournament against Saudi Arabia in Jakarta. REUTERS/Ali Abu Shish
Gunfire, tears as Iraqis celebrate soccer win
Sun Jul 29, 2007 4:10PM EDT
By Paul Tait
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Crowds of ecstatic Iraqis wept tears of joy and fired rifles into the air on Sunday after their soccer team's victory in the Asian Cup triggered the biggest street celebrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Police in Baghdad and Kut reported at least seven deaths and more than 50 people wounded by stray bullets as gun-toting revelers took to the streets in a wave of euphoria unprecedented after four years of war.
Unlike earlier in the week, when suicide bombers killed 50 people after the team won the semi-final on Wednesday, there were no reports of major bomb strikes targeting fans.
"The pain is broken!" Sports Minister Jassim Mohammed Jaffar told Reuters after Iraq beat heavily favored Saudi Arabia 1-0 in Jakarta.
"I swear we are heroes. This is a proud moment for all Iraqis," a fan in Baghdad's Karrada district cheered.
Authorities had imposed vehicle curfews and security forces were on alert. The team wore black arm bands in memory of those killed in Wednesday's strikes.
Brigadier General Qassim Moussawi, the Iraqi military's chief spokesman in Baghdad, said security forces had killed a suspected insurgent and defused a car bomb in the Saidiya district of southern Baghdad soon after the match.
Six people died when mortar rounds hit a house in Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
Spontaneous celebrations broke out in religiously mixed Baghdad as well as in Basra and the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf in the south and northern Kurdish towns like Arbil and Kirkuk.
Fans cried and danced in the streets, waving their shirts in the air and hugging.
Soldiers with their rifles slung over their shoulders danced with ordinary Iraqis in Baghdad while children, their faces painted in the Iraqi colors, held up pictures of their heroes.
TEAM REPRESENTS SOCIETY
While mainly comprised of Shi'ites, the team was captained by a Sunni Turkman from Kirkuk -- goal-scoring hero Younis Mahmoud -- and also contained Sunni Arab and Kurdish players in a broad representation of Iraqi society.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who watched the match in a gold-painted chair in his office, quickly issued a statement praising the team's victory. Maliki will give a reception for the players on their return to Iraq, officials said.
In Baghdad's Sadr City, a sprawling Shi'ite slum, women threw sweets to gathering fans and poured water over crowds in sweltering summer heat.
"A thousand congratulations for all Iraqis," another fan said.
Television presenters, draped in the red, white and black Iraqi flag, dissolved into tears. One Iraqiya television reporter was engulfed by a crowd in Baghdad and re-emerged on the shoulders of chanting fans.
CNN broke into normal programming to announce the win and the U.S. military congratulated the team.
A vehicle curfew began in Baghdad at 4 p.m., half an hour before kick-off, and was to stay in place until 6 a.m. on Monday
(0200 GMT).
Similar bans were imposed in volatile Kirkuk, and Najaf and Kerbala, where authorities said they had received intelligence of possible car bomb attacks.
Iraqi security forces detained two men in a car packed with explosives in eastern Baghdad not long before the match started, police said. They were accused of trying to target soccer fans.
Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, before the match against firing weapons into the air, a traditional tribal celebration. Two people were killed by falling bullets on Wednesday.
(Additional reporting by Mustafa Mahmoud in Kirkuk and Aseel Kami and Aws Qusay in Baghdad)
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
A baby wears an Iraqi flag as Iraqi-Americans celebrate in the streets in Dearborn, Mich., July 29, 2007, after Iraq defeated Saudi Arabia in the AFC Asian Cup soccer championship.
REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
Joy, calls for unity in Iraq after Asia cup victory
© AP
2007-07-29 20:23:38 -
BAGHDAD (AP) - Hundreds of pages have been ripped from the calendar since Iraqis showed the kind of unity and happiness that flowed across the land on Sunday _ however brief it may prove.
And it would have been seen as a foolhardy exercise to predict a football (soccer) team _ the determined Lions of
the Two Rivers _ would unleash a flood of joy held back for decades by the dam of Saddam Hussein's tyranny and four-plus years of war since America invaded to topple him.
The team's victory in the prestigious 2007 Asian Cup dripped with the symbolism of the makeup of its front-line strikers: one Kurd, one Shiite, one Sunni.
Police roadblocks had been stiffened. A security crackdown was in full force.
Curfews banned vehicles in Baghdad and other cities. Decrees forbade the penchant in this part of the world to grab your AK-47 and rip off a few celebratory rounds.
But gunfire roared across Baghdad at the second-half goal against Saudi Arabia in pursuit of a soccer cup the Iraqi team had never won.
It was deafening when the underdog Lions sealed the 1-0 victory in Jakarta, Indonesia.
State television said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was on the phone in seconds talking to the victors. The dour, hard-line Shiite leader announced only minutes into the the game that each team member had been awarded $10,000.
And the leader's office quickly cranked out a note of congratulations
«There is a big difference between The Lions of the Two Rivers who struggle to put a smile on the faces of their people and those who work in dark corners strewing death and sorrow in the paths of innocent people. We are proud of you. Your deserve all our love and respect.
The U.S. military command in Iraq e-mailed its own message shortly afterward.
«Throughout this demanding competition, you represented Iraq with distinction and honor, inspiring all Iraqis by your unity, teamwork, dedication and athletic ability. We salute you and congratulate you on this tremendous achievement.
The people of Iraq seemed far ahead of their leaders in letting sectarian bygones be bygone and allowing ethnic atrocities to fade.
In Shiite-dominated Basra, Iraq's second city in the deep south, some young men stripped to the waist to show chests painted with the colors of the Iraqi flag. Others painted their faces. Some wore monkey masks and wigs.
North of the capital in Tikrit, just up the road from Saddam's hometown and Sunni power base, cars toured the city, horns honking, Iraqi flags poked out of the windows.
In Sulaimaniyah, the Kurdish city in the north, Amir Mohammed, a Shiite Arab visiting from the south, walked through the streets arm-in-arm with his Kurdish friend Shaman Aziz.
«We agreed that if the Iraqi team won, I would carry the Iraqi flag while my Arab friend would walk with the Kurdish flag in order to show that there is no difference among Iraqis. We belong to one country. The football team has shown that we are united from the south to the north,» Aziz said.
Happiness, too, in southeastern Baghdad's mainly Shiite Amin neighborhood
Tariq Yassin, a 24-year-old Shiite in the district, declared himself a shy man who forgot himself and danced in the streets, marveling the «These athletes united us again.
Two hundred miles south of the capital, Mahmoud Hassan, joined merrymakers in the streets of Nasiriyah. «I can't express my joy. It's the best day of my life. We want to forget all our sorrow and begin life anew in our beloved Iraq.
But even in victory and paroxysms of joy, tragedy struck, danger loomed.
In just one Baghdad neighborhood, four people died of celebratory gunshot wounds. Scores were wounded nationwide and the reports continued seeping in from across the nation.
Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, told The Associated Press that Iraqi police narrowly averted a suicide car bomb attack as the driver was killed speeing toward a celebrating crowd southwestern Baghdad.
Dozens died last week when bombers hit fans and patriots jamming the streets after the Iraqi team's quarterfinal and semifinal wins.
With parliamentarians at sectarian loggerheads and political and religious-driven violence still raging, huge strides await politicians in matching the unity that sprang from Iraqis Sunday. Rich and poor, Shiites and Sunnis and Kurds, they swarmed out of Baghdad's swank villas and adobe hovels unified, if briefly, by a sports team.
Will a first postwar home game for The Lions of the Two Rivers signal things are truly better
Hurst is AP Iraq bureau chief and has reported from Baghdad since 2003.
Soccer fans take to the streets near Baghdad after the Iraqi soccer team beat Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup. Photo / Reuters
Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds unite to hail cup-winning heroes
BUSHRA JUHI AND CHRIS BRUMMITT
"THIS is not just about football, this is more important than that. This has brought great happiness to a whole country. This is not about a team, this is about human beings."
So said Jorvan Vieira, Iraq's national football team coach, yesterday after his side achieved one of sport's great fairytale moments, beating the favourites Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the Asian Cup final in Jakarta to provide a rare moment for celebration in their war-torn homeland.
In the 71st minute of the match, Iraqi captain Younis Mahmoud, a Sunni, climbed to head a perfectly-weighted corner from Hawar Mulla Mohammed, a Kurd, into the net.
"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, 43, a policeman in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City.
"Once again, our national team has shown that there is only one, united Iraq."
But after the game, Mahmoud, who was named player of the tournament, said one of the tragedies of the war was that the team would not even be able to return to Iraq with the trophy.
"I don't want the Iraqi people to be angry with me," he said. "[But] if I go back with the team, anybody could kill me or try to hurt me."
The Iraqi captain, who like the rest of the team wore black armbands to remember the dozens killed by car-bombers following the side's semi-final victory over South Korea on Wednesday, said the United States presence in his homeland was a "problem".
"I want America to go out," he said. "Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn't invade Iraq and hopefully it will be over soon."
Yesterday, the Iraqi government enforced a vehicle ban to try to prevent a repeat of the two car bombs that tore into people celebrating Iraq's semi-final win. Mahmoud said one of the victims had been a small child.
"His mother said when her child was killed in front of her, she didn't cry. She said, 'I present my son as a sacrifice for the national team'. Then we had to win," he said.
An Iraqi military official said police had foiled a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad yesterday, but the celebrations brought death for some. Shots fired into the air killed at least four people and wounded 17 when they returned to earth.
But for the most part, Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and other Iraqis joined together in peaceful celebration of their similarly mixed football team. "This winning has united the Iraqis and nobody has been this excited since a long time," said Yassir Mohammed, a Sunni from Baghdad.
Traffic jams clogged the streets in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. Amir Mohammed, a Shiite, joined a Kurdish friend to celebrate. "The soccer team has shown that we are united from the south to the north," he said.
The Iraqi team, known as the "Lions of the Two Rivers" were making their first appearance in the final against three-time champions Saudi Arabia.
In the post-match news conference, Vieira, a Brazilian, and Mahmoud sat wearing black armbands. "It's very clear, from our arms, our respect to the people who died when we put Korea out of the competition," Vieira said. "This victory we offer to the families of those people."
He also paid tribute to the team physio, Anwar, who died in a bombing as he was collecting tickets to attend the pre-tournament training camp in Jordan.
Vieira confirmed he was now quitting and said: "I have worked my best to give happiness to the Iraqi people, to bring a warm smile to their lips, and my mission is accomplished."
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1183592007
Last updated: 30-Jul-07 01:00 BST
No comments:
Post a Comment