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February 23rd, 2006

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Catastrophe in Samarra

Salam Adil · 04:42 · Middle East & North Africa

I am devoting my Thursday post on Iraqi blogs to the bombing of the Shia Shrine in Samarra and I hope to cover the rest of the Iraqi Blogs in a later report. The subject is serious enough to dominate the Iraqi weblogs. The Shia shrine in Samarra is one of the most revered symbols of Shia Islam and the attack has been designed to cause the greatest shock and repercussions across Iraq.

The general consensus among all the bloggers is that no Iraqi could have been behind the bombing. Some blame foreign terrorists, some blame America, and one even blames Iran. Most are worried that this heralds the start of an all-out civil war.

There are reports from the ground:
Christopher Albritton was in the Green Zone when the news of the bombing broke. He knew something big happened because his interviewee cancelled. Omar of Iraq the Model blames foreign terror groups and reports on the tension in Baghdad: “Sporadic gunfire is heard in different spots in Baghdad but no one knows for sure if the firing meant clashes or mere angry shooting in the air.” Zeyad gives the clearest impression of the atmosphere now:

The situation in Baghdad is bad, bad, bad. I had to flee work early and return home after news of large protests in Shi'ite districts, and several attacks against Sunni mosques in the Baladiyat, Sha'ab and Dora districts by angry rioters. Sunnis are being blamed for the attack against a Shia holy shrine in Samarra, a largely Sunni town.

The streets look empty now, and all stores seem to be closed. I can hear gunfire and American helicopters and jets circling the skies.

(more…)

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Links for Thu, 2006-02

Eastern & Central Europe

Matt Jay has a valuable summary of the murder of the opposition politician Altynbek Sarsenbaiuly in Kazakhstan.

Eastern & Central Europe

Registan.net notes that things seem to be heating up in Kazakhstan in the investigation of the murder of an opposition leader. The head of the Senate administration has been arrested in connection with the murder, and the opposition is calling for investigation of the president's daughter and her husband.

Eastern & Central Europe

Sergey Belyakov of RUBLog posts six political jokes, which target Vladimir Putin, Joseph Stalin, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, and Adam and Eve.

Eastern & Central Europe

Russia marks Defenders of the Fatherland Day today, aka the Men's Day (while March 8 is the Women's Day). Megan Case posts a contemporary greeting card she has found in s store; Katerina at The Accidental Russophile links to the site that has Soviet postcards for the occasion; Russia Blog writes about the posters greeting Moscow veterans with a drawing of a U.S. battleship; journalist Oleg Kashin (RUS) posts a copy of an equally embarrassing greeting to Kaliningrad veterans, with a German tank on it.

Eastern & Central Europe

W. Shedd of The Accidental Russophile attempts to analyze today's collapse of one of Moscow's largest markets from an engineer's perspective. So far, 56 people are reported to have been killed, but this number is likely to grow, as many more were inside at 5:45 a.m., when the tragedy took place. The majority of the victims were from Azerbaijan and Central Asia.

Americas

Eduardo Ávila has posted a video of his friend, Miguel campaigning in Quechua via a giant speaker attached to the roof of his car in the outskirts of Cochabamba. Ávila has also posted a picture of what he calls the “Sound Mobile:” a minivan equipped with booming speakers to get the attention of potential voters.

South Asia

Metroblogging Islamabad links to an archive of old photographs of the Indian subcontinent. It's interesting that most of the subcontinent's photographic history is through the eyes of the Raj, and determines largely the subject and the gaze of the camera.