Reopening of Iraq bridge symbolizes renewed unity

[Coventina]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Baghdad -- They gathered by the green steel-span bridge, where nearly 1,000 people died three years ago in a stampede set off when rumors spread through a crowd of pilgrims that a suicide bomber was in their midst.

On Tuesday, buoyed by renewed hopes for their country's future, clerics, politicians and ordinary citizens crossed the Two Imams bridge for the first time since the August 2005 tragedy, restoring the long-severed link between the Sunni Muslim neighborhood of Adhamiya and the Shiite Muslim stronghold of Kadhimiya.

First sealed off in early 2005, the bridge, with blast walls like giant gray tombstones, has served as a symbol of Iraq's fratricidal religious divisions. The reopening ceremony Tuesday was evidence that the nation's warfare has abated enough to allow Baghdad to try to work its way back to its pluralistic, multiethnic past.

"There was a saying that if Kadhimiya and Adhamiya united again, then all the Iraqi people will unite also," said Duraid Nouri Salih, who crossed the bridge Tuesday to visit a friend in Kadhimiya.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-bridge12-2008nov12,0,2903293.story

[Ian David]

1. ...

[Coventina]

3. LOL! n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Good. We can split.