On the groom's last night as a single man, a bachelor party on his front lawn kicked off with song and dance.
"We love you to death, Moqtada," a pair of singers crooned in praise of Moqtada al-Sadr, the fiery anti-American cleric who, though absent, overshadowed the groom. "We love you as much as there are leaves on a tree."
Out came one of the groom's best friends, waving his arms like a carnival barker.
"Those who follow the Americans are dogs," he yelled. "We swear by Moqtada that we won't let our machine guns stop!"
Loyalty to the Shiite cleric burns fierce here in northeastern Baghdad, and especially in Sadr City, a vast slum of 2.2 million people, despite frequent US raids and almost nightly airstrikes. The US military has stepped up its campaign to rout the Mahdi Army, al-Sadr's militia, on its home turf here, to drive him to the bargaining table. But it is often impossible to distinguish between civilians and fighters.
A reporter, photographer and interpreter with The New York Times recently spent nearly 24 hours being guided through the battleground streets -- and even to a guerrilla bachelor party -- by one of al-Sadr's midlevel aides. It became apparent that the Mahdi Army here is less a discrete military organization than a populist movement that includes everyone from doctors to policemen to tribal sheiks, and whose ranks swell with impoverished men willing to die.
The day began with a drive to the home of the al-Sadr aide, a slim, balding 35-year-old man who gave his name simply as Muhammad. Donkey carts plied the dusty streets, mounds of trash lined wide avenues and posters of chubby, black-turbaned al-Sadr were plastered across every block. Graffiti in English decorated some walls: "Vietnam Street -- We'll make your graves in this place."
Muhammad's home was tucked into a narrow alley in the Chewadar neighborhood. A reeking open channel of sewage ran along the street. A boy dashed around with a toy rifle propped on his shoulder like a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Nearby, other children played soccer in dirt lots, and women in black robes peeked out from their doorways.
The home was typical of many in Sadr City: a two-story ocher building, with an extended family of 35 squeezed into 1,500 square feet. Muhammad's family moved here in 1962 from Amara, a southern city, before his birth. He is the second oldest of six brothers, many of whom are members of the Mahdi Army.
"If the Americans didn't try entering Sadr City with their tanks, I can guarantee you not a single bullet would be fired," Muhammad said over a lunch of lamb kebab; a framed portrait of al-Sadr was on the wall behind him. "Everyone here is part of the resistance."
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam’s unique modern script, in part a legacy of French colonial rule. The history of romanized Vietnamese, or Quoc Ngu, links the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, colonization by the French and the rise to power of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It is now reflected in the country’s “bamboo diplomacy” approach of seeking strength through flexibility, or looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers. A month after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visited,
RSS