Chapter Twelve

Taji to Sammara

Apart from Saddam’s (Mujahedin-e Khalq MEK) who were in evidence in convoys of pick-ups armed with heavy machine guns as they practised their manoeuvres near their base on the road north there was little military traffic on the main road. The MEK, an Iranian resistance militia was set up in opposition to the Shah of Iran. Teheran students Massoud and his wife Maryam Rajavi were among the first leaders. They fled Persia (Iran) and were offered asylum by Saddam who equipped them with captured Iranian arms and transport and as a result they were fanatically loyal to him. Their main base was at Ashraf Camp off Highway 2 from Baghdad to Kirkuk, that we frequently used. Massoud had vanished from the scene and may be dead and Maryam had taken over the military wing. The MEK is very strong on equal rights for women and had many women in their militia who were amongst the most fanatical with a higher proportion of women officers than their overall numbers warranted. They carried out cross-border attacks on Iranian targets for Saddam. From their beginning in Iran they were extremely anti-fundamentalist. They were consequently extremely anti-Shia and helped put down the Shia uprising in southern Iraq with great cruelty after the First Gulf war. In Kuwait also, they put down the enemies of Saddam mercilessly when Iraq invaded that country. The MEK was also very active when Saddam ordered them to help put down the Kurdish uprising after the war with Kuwait. Maryam was in command of the MEK armed forces and the New York Times famously reported in 2003 that one of her Battle Orders to her tank commanders in March 1991 was: “Take the Kurds under your tanks, and save your bullets for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”

It is no wonder that they were intensely disliked by the Shia and Kurds and, of course, Iran. While most of their bases were bombed in the war of 2003 the MEK surrendered early during the war to the US army who then occupied the site and gave a level of protection to them. There were then 3,200 of their soldiers left in the 10 sqare mile Ashraf camp. They were equipped with Darth Vader style helmets that are now highly sought after. While the Iraqis were very keen to put them on trial for war crimes, the Americans were inclined to protect them and use them to carry out operations against Iran. Expediency seemed to have won out over justice.

However, with the American disengagement from Iraq, Camp Ashraf was handed over to the Iraqis and justice is now being meted out by both Iraqi and Iranian authorities who have a common interest in the MEK. When the Maliki Iraqi forces entered the camp on April 8th 2011 they behaved with great brutality and a number of women were killed. Among them was Saba Haftbaradaran who was filming the disturbances. Her death caused a furore in America particularly among hard line Republican politicians who elevated her to an iconic heroine status. Three mass graves were found in the camp and it is believed that some of the bodies recovered were of MEK members who wanted to leave the group and were done to death for disloyalty.

Maryam Rajavi Military leader of the MEK forces during their onslaught on the Kurds in 1991.

Iraqis search for their relatives and friends among victims found in a mass grave in Musayib, 75 KM SW of Baghdad. The victims are thought to be from among some 2,000 persons reported missing after the 1991 uprising against the Iraqi government. The bodies wrapped in linen shrouds are being held in a makeshift morgue in a youth centre.

Photo source: Thomas Hartwell, USAID.

Although we passed Ashraf and the MEK in their armed pick-ups many times on our travels, never once did our Kurdish drivers speak to us about the atrocities perpetrated by them. Once in Baghdad we were driving through the traffic when I made a sarcastic remark about Saddam. My Kurdish driver Azziz got agitated and poked me in the ribs. When I looked across he put his finger to his lips signalling silence and then pointed to the cab roof indicating the possibility of a bugging device. I shivered when it dawned on me that these people, the ordinary Iraqi man and women in the street were walking a very dangerous tightrope indeed.

About 68 km from Baghdad we passed through Balad, a town that now gives its name to the old al-Bakr airbase, the largest in Saddam’s Air Force. It is situated halfway between the Baghdad to Kirkuk road and the Baghdad to Mosul road and was the largest and busiest air base of the American Forces in Iraq, housing 28,000 military personnel. It is huge by any standard and has two runways measuring 13,000 and 12,000 feet. Saddam seemed to site all his large bases in the centre of the country with his Interceptor bases nearer the borders. In spite of the many hardened plane shelters in Al Bakr the Iraqis used to hide some of their MIG 23s in a nearby cemetery. This seems to have been an inspired decision as the allies were able to destroy their hardened plane shelters.

One of the surviving Hardened Aircraft Shelters (HAS) at Balad Air Base.

Photo: US DOD.

We met several cars travelling south with coffins on their roof racks. The coffins were made of unpainted white deal boards nailed together and with Arabic lettering at the side. The cars carried devout Shia Moslems on their way to bury their loved ones in Najaf near the tomb of Imam Ali. The Imam Ali was the cousin and the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad. Shia Moslems regard him as the first Imam and the conflict over the succession from the Prophet defined the differences between the Shia and the Sunni Moslems ever since. Najaf, 160 km southwest of Baghdad, is consequently a Holy Place to the Shia Moslems. It is a desirable place for the devout to be buried and their funerals reflect the poverty of the Shia in general. The huge cemetery there is called Wadi-us-Salaam (Valley of Peace). It is probably the largest cemetery in the world covering 1,485 acres with millions buried there. This number is increased by 500,000 each year.

Soon we approached Samarra with its towering spiral al-Malwiya minaret and the huge al- Jami mosque. It is said that the name ‘Samarra’ is derived from the Arabic phrase, ‘Sarr min ra’a’ which translates to ‘A joy for all who see’. As of early 1988 Samarra was also reputed to be one of the main storage depots of Iraqi artillery shells, bombs, and rockets loaded with chemical warfare (CW) materials. It is about 125 km north of Baghdad, was once the capital of the Moslem world when the Caliph al-Mu’tasim moved there from Baghdad in 836 AD following unrest in Baghdad. The caliphate’s Turkic and Armenian slave soldiers, known as Mamluk, had agitated the citizens of Baghdad so much that they provoked riots.

One of Caliph al-Mu’tasim’s successors, the Caliph al-Mutawakkil, constructed the Malwiyah (minaret) and the great mosque in 847 AD. The Capital moved back to Baghdad in 892 AD and Samarra slowly declined. It was a city of ruins in later medieval times and when it was rediscovered by archeologists at the beginning of the 20th Century the site stretched for 50 km (30 miles) along the banks of the Tigris and covered an area of more than 150 square km (60 square miles). It is a treasure house for archeologists as it has lain undisturbed for so long. On a later journey I detoured into Samarra and was impressed at its extent. On our way to the Minaret and a distance of 10 km from it we passed a brick-built palace called Kaser Al-Ma’shouq (the Beloved’s Palace). It is also called Kaser Al-Asheq (the Lover’s Palace). It was built by Caliph Al-Mu’tadhid for one of his favourite ladies just before he left the city for the return to Baghdad in 892 AD.

I first visited the Al Jami Mosque that was built by al-Mutawakil and was the biggest mosque in the world. It was designed to accommodate 80,000 of the faithful and covered an area of 38,000 square metres. It has 10-metre high brick walls measuring 239 metres long by 156 metres wide with access by 23 doors. The Malwiya Minaret, built in 852 by the Caliph is quite close to the mosque. It is on a square base measuring 32 metres by 32 metres. The building above the base has a spiral stairs 2.3 metres wide winding its way anti-clockwise to the pavilion on the top which is 50 metres (165 feet) above the ground. It is said that the Caliph al-Mutawakil used to ride up the minaret on horseback! During this short period Sammara flourished and the tales surrounding it have passed into legend. It is now an UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Malwiya Minaret.

I did not climb the minaret as age has fostered an intense respect for heights. When I was young I took great delight in climbing to the top of the high towers of Whitegate Oil Refinery in Cork Harbour. I worked there as an engineering student during the 1958 summer holidays. One of my jobs was to measure the wall thickness of the large oil pipes that formed all sorts of connections to the towers. The hot oil and sulphurous gases inside used to corrode the inside surface of the large pipes and hence their wall thickness had to be monitored on a regular basis. I frequently stood on the pipe outside the guard rail that I held onto with one hand while I performed the ultrasonic measuring procedure over a hundred feet above the ground. My contempt for heights took a severe battering some eight years later when I used to climb down the cliffs of the Old Head of Kinsale (of Lusitania fame) to fish with my two young brothers. I was conscious of the slippery grass and used to hold on for dear life when they used to nonchalantly fly past me with their fishing gear on the dangerous and narrow track with the angry Atlantic breakers smashing against the rocks below.

The Al-Askari Mosque in the city contains the mausoleums of the 10th and 11th imams of the Shia, Ali Al-Hadi who died in 868 AD and his son Hassan Al-Askari who died in 874 AD and was buried next to his father. An Imam is akin to the Catholic Pope and is the leader of the Shia. The mosque also contains the shrine of Mohammad al-Mahdi the 12th and final Imam in line from Mohammad, also known as the ‘Hidden Imam’. I was utterly disgusted when the mosque was bombed in 2006 in an attack that severely damaged it and destroyed its golden dome. In 2007 the remaining two 10 storey minarets were destroyed.

The Shia believed that al-Mahdi did not die but disappeared in a cavern in Samarra and they are waiting for his reappearance to lead the faithful to overcome the army of evil and hasten the end of the world. Many false Mahdis have been proclaimed to date. The most famous was known as Muhammad Ahmed ibn Abdulla. He proclaimed a Mahdist State in the Sudan in 1881 AD which was conquered by the British and Egyptian armies in 1892 AD six years after the Mahdi’s death.

The Al-Askari Mosque after the 22/02/2006 bombing, but before the minarets were fully destroyed on 13/06/2007.

Photo source: U.S. Army.

An old Arab legend tells of a Baghdad servant who was sent to the market to buy provisions for his master. When he returned he was very shaken and said to his master: “I was walking with the jostling crowds in the market and someone pushed me from behind. I looked back and saw that it was Death and he beckoned to me. He looked angrily at me and I am frightened. You must help me escape.” The master gave him money and a horse and the servant rode like the wind to Samarra, where he hoped to hide where Death would not find him. In the bazaar there he met Death, who said: “I have been waiting for you.” Then Death told him “I was surprised to see you in Baghdad as I had an appointment with you here in Samarra.”

There was a very low police presence all the way up north. On one occasion we had a slight accident with a farmer’s pick-up. It would have been quite serious had not our driver Ayad reacted very quickly and swerved to avoid the pick-up when it shot out of a by-road. The police were called and the policeman who arrived treated us very politely and when the farmer got a bit excited he advised him in a low voice not to let the Iraqi nation down in front of foreigners. We said that we would look after our damage ourselves and went on our way waving back at the policeman and the farmer.

As we sped north we noticed plenty of war damage to the local infrastructure. We crossed many bombed bridges and crossed on military pontoon structures or on Bailey Bridges. At each of these solitary posts soldiers stood guard and they gave a friendly wave as we swept past. What an awful way to live out one’s life I thought as I waved back.

Further north at Tigrit the road forked. Tigrit had not yet achieved the notoriety it later enjoyed. However, it was special to me as it was the birthplace of Salah ad-Din (Saladin) one of my boyhood heroes. He was born to Ayyub the Kurd in the castle of Tikrit where his father was the commandant. He was named Yusuf ibn Ayyub but he undertook a military career and his qualities were such that at the age of 32 years the Caliph appointed him Vizir of Egypt in 1169. He named him Salah ed-Din (Saladin) meaning ‘Honour Of The Faith’ and it is by this name that he is known to us through history. Though a Kurd, Saladin was revered throughout the Arab world down the centuries. He is a source of fierce pride to them as the victorious defender of Islam against the Crusaders. For Crusader read the West. The ‘Eagle of Saladin’ is featured on the coat of Arms of many Arab States. This is a pointer to explain the Iraqi reaction to the Allied invasion of Iraq. To the Iraqis a Western army on their soil is likened to the Crusaders of old and their knee-jerk reaction is to repel them like Saladin who’s Eagle they bear on their national coat of arms.

The shoe throwing at President Bush. Note the Iraqi ‘Eagle of Salahadin’ on both podiums.

Photo source: White House video.

To commemorate the shoe throwing at President Bush incident the Iraqis displayed a monumental shoe the size of a caravan, filled it with earth and planted a fine verdant bush in it. It was erected near an orphanage at the entrance to Tikrit. Shoe throwing is a serious insult in Arab culture. The American forces did not see the humour in it and had it removed the following day.