Vast Iraqi Shia cemetery grows with Islamic State war dead
Iraq's prime minister Haider al-Abadi handing over arms to a Iraqi Sunni youth to fight against Islamic State militants.
AP, Najaf :
Every chapter of Iraq’s modern history can be seen in this great, sprawling city of the dead, its mausoleums stretching across the horizon from one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines.
And now, its sandy expanse grows again yet with the war dead killed by the country’s latest adversary, the extremists of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group.
“I expect that these graveyards will be expanded as more fighting against Daesh looms in the horizon,” said Ali Abdul-Aali, the city official in charge of Najaf cemetery, using an Arabic acronym for the group.
Kings, scientists, artists, warriors and millions of others have a final resting place at Wadi al-Salam, or the “Valley of Peace” in Arabic, buried one atop the other in one of the world’s largest cemeteries.
The roughly 10-square-kilometre graveyard radiates out from the tomb of Imam Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and Shia Islam’s most sacred martyr. In its narrow rows, a visitor can find those killed in Iraq’s long war in the 1980s with Iran or those slain in the sectarian bloodletting that followed the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.
Gravediggers shrug off questions about how many people have been buried here since the cemetery’s founding a 1,000 years ago, simply saying millions. But in recent months, the growth of areas set aside for Shia militias fighting the Islamic State group has been easy to see.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s prime minister is leaving for Washington for talks with US President Barrack Obama, whom he is expected to ask for substantial weapons deliveries.
Haider al-Abadi will also seek to agree a strategy for dislodging Islamic State (IS) militants from the large parts of the country which they still control.
Last week, Mr Abadi launched a campaign to drive them out of Iraq’s biggest province, Anbar, west of Baghdad.
IS responded with a renewed onslaught on the provincial capital, Ramadi.
The US-led coalition carried out air strikes on IS positions on Sunday in an attempt to halt the assault, inflicting heavy damage on large military units, officials said.
Every chapter of Iraq’s modern history can be seen in this great, sprawling city of the dead, its mausoleums stretching across the horizon from one of Shia Islam’s holiest shrines.
And now, its sandy expanse grows again yet with the war dead killed by the country’s latest adversary, the extremists of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group.
“I expect that these graveyards will be expanded as more fighting against Daesh looms in the horizon,” said Ali Abdul-Aali, the city official in charge of Najaf cemetery, using an Arabic acronym for the group.
Kings, scientists, artists, warriors and millions of others have a final resting place at Wadi al-Salam, or the “Valley of Peace” in Arabic, buried one atop the other in one of the world’s largest cemeteries.
The roughly 10-square-kilometre graveyard radiates out from the tomb of Imam Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) and Shia Islam’s most sacred martyr. In its narrow rows, a visitor can find those killed in Iraq’s long war in the 1980s with Iran or those slain in the sectarian bloodletting that followed the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.
Gravediggers shrug off questions about how many people have been buried here since the cemetery’s founding a 1,000 years ago, simply saying millions. But in recent months, the growth of areas set aside for Shia militias fighting the Islamic State group has been easy to see.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s prime minister is leaving for Washington for talks with US President Barrack Obama, whom he is expected to ask for substantial weapons deliveries.
Haider al-Abadi will also seek to agree a strategy for dislodging Islamic State (IS) militants from the large parts of the country which they still control.
Last week, Mr Abadi launched a campaign to drive them out of Iraq’s biggest province, Anbar, west of Baghdad.
IS responded with a renewed onslaught on the provincial capital, Ramadi.
The US-led coalition carried out air strikes on IS positions on Sunday in an attempt to halt the assault, inflicting heavy damage on large military units, officials said.
