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Archaeologists unearth ‘breathtaking’ 4,000-year-old complex at Iraqi home of Abraham
British archaeologists said Thursday they have unearthed a sprawling complex near the ancient city of Ur in southern Iraq, home of the biblical Abraham.
The structure, thought to be about 4,000 years old, probably served as an administrative center for Ur, around the time Abraham would have lived there before leaving for Canaan, according to the Bible.
The compound is near the site of the partially reconstructed Ziggurat, or Sumerian temple, said Stuart Campbell of Manchester University’s Archaeology Department, who led the dig.
“This is a breathtaking find,” Campbell said, because of its unusually large size – roughly the size of a football pitch, or about 80 metres on each side. The archaeologist said complexes of this size and age were rare. (Stuart Campbell / The Associated Press)
Iraqi gay and emo communities in fear of death squads, at least 14 dead so far
Homosexuals have lived in fear in Iraq for years, notably since religious militia claimed control of the streets in the sectarian warfare that followed the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, which toppled Saddam Hussein. But Hurriya — whose adopted surname means “Freedom” in Arabic — says a surge in killings in the past two months is by far the worst he has seen.
Since the start of this year, death squads have been targeting two separate groups — gay men, and those who dress in a distinctive, Western-influenced style called “emo”, which some Iraqis mistakenly associate with homosexuality.
At least 14 young men have been bludgeoned to death in the last three weeks in east Baghdad, an area dominated by Shi’ite Muslims, according to local security and medical sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Photo: A gay activist known by his pseudonym Roby Hurriya shows pictures of his friend Saif Asmar before and after Asmar was killed. (Saad Shalash/Reuters)
Iraqi sprinter Dana Abdul-Razzaq exercises during a training session in Baghdad University.
At the worst of the violence in 2006-2007, athletes dodged sniper bullets at the Jadriya oval track in the heart of Baghdad. Now, groups of athletes race each other as children watch, and older men lazily walk around the track that encircles an uneven grass field. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani
Iraq Shi’ite militia says U.S. has ‘failed,’ pledges to lay down arms in wake of Sunni bombings
The leader of a Shi’ite militia, Asaib al-Haq, which carried out some of the most prominent attacks on foreigners during the Iraq war, said the group will lay down its weapons and is prepared to join the political process.
This comes on the same day that a bomb targetting Iraqi Shi’ites killed at least 67 people, a bout of violence triggered by Shi’ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s high-profile bid to remove two senior Sunni politicians.
“This stage of the military conflict between the Iraqi armed resistance and the occupation forces is over, with a distinct, historic Iraqi victory and a distinct, historic U.S. failure,” Qais al-Khazali told Reuters
Smithsonian takes a shine to National Post editor Richard Johnson’s raw images of life in war zones
This past week, Richard Johnson donated 20 of his illustrations to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, in the hope his artwork can continue to tell the stories of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq for generations to come.
The 45-year-old says his initial desire to head out into the field was born more out of frustration than anything else. “I find it at times personally very frustrating how little attention is paid to certain aspects of stories and for me the artwork is a way of making people pay attention to something they would normally not read,” he says.
With the long operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Johnson says readers were growing numb to the “sanitized” images they saw of burnt-out cars. “Nobody wants to be traumatized by seeing too many dead bodies,” he says.
Instead, Johnson’s images capture the everyday reality of life on the ground through a more “raw,” artistic approach, according to Jennifer Locke Jones, chair and curator of the Smithsonian’s division of armed forces. “He never goes back to it, or fill it in, and do the ‘prettying up’ that other artists do,” Jones says. Instead, she says, Johnson draws in the field, sparking an “immediacy and freshness” that traditional war illustrations lack.
After nine years of hard fought battles, photos capture the U.S. pullout from Iraq
They packed their bags, loaded them on trucks and boarded buses to leave the Iraq war behind forever. The pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq is proceeding as scheduled, fulfilling one of President Obama’s election promises.
U.S. forces are scheduled to entirely depart Iraq by December 31, there are currently around 4,000 troops remaining in Iraq. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Hundreds in Fallujah burn U.S. flag to celebrate troops pulling out of Iraq
Hundreds of Iraqis set alight U.S. and Israeli flags on Wednesday as they celebrated the impending pullout of American forces from the country in the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah.
“We are proud to have driven the occupier out of Iraq, at the cost of enormous sacrifice,” said Khalid al-Alwa, the local leader of the Islamic Party, a Sunni Muslim grouping. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Infographic: Single-day terror blitz in Iraq
Terrorist across Iraq launched wide-ranging attacks Monday, killing about 80 people and wounding more than 3,000, marking the most violent day in Iraq this year.
Photos of the Day, April 27, 2011
Policewomen practice assembling and disassembling Kalashnikov automatic rifles during a training course at a police academy in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad April 27, 2011. About 50 policewomen took part in a 45-day basic training course, a police commander in Kerbala said on Wednesday. (Mushtaq Muhammed/Reuters)
Libyan rebels’ Islamist ties cause concern
A Canadian intelligence report written in late 2009 called the anti-Gaddafi stronghold of eastern Libya an “epicentre of Islamist extremism” and said “extremist cells” operated in the region, now being defended by a Canadian-led NATO coalition.
The report by the government’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre said “several Islamist insurgent groups” were based in eastern Libya and mosques in Benghazi were urging followers to fight in Iraq.
“Within the region, the population holds more conservative views compared to the rest of Libya and Islamist activism is strongly concentrated,” said the report labelled ‘‘secret’’ and released to the National Post under the Access to Information Act.
Photo: Rebels retreat after forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi attacked them near Brega in eastern Libya, March 30, 2011. (REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly)
Document: Was Gaddafi stopping terrorism?
Libya rebels flee oil town
As decisive battle looms near Sirte, NATO debates mission’s mandate
Graphic: Who might revolt? Who might fall?
Which domino will fall next? With uprisings sweeping the Middle East, no country in the region can feel safe from the threat of revolution. The Post looks at some of the forces driving the protests — the economy, lifestyle, education, the military, corruption and good governance. And Chip Pitts, a lecturer in human rights law at Stanford Law School, tells the National Post’s Aileen Donnelly about the chances of revolt — and their success — in other countries in the region. (Graphic by Richard Johnson)
(Text too small? The graphic as a PDF here)
Which domino will fall next? With uprisings sweeping the Middle East, no country in the region can feel safe from the threat of revolution. The Post looks at some of the forces driving the protests — the economy, lifestyle, education, the military, corruption and good governance. And Chip Pitts, a lecturer in human rights law at Stanford Law School, tells the National Post’s Aileen Donnelly about the chances of revolt — and their success — in other countries in the region.
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Graphic: Fatal price of protest in the Middle East
Several thousand Shi’ites turned out in Bahrain on Friday to bury three of those killed in a crackdown ordered by the island state’s Sunni ruling family to quell opposition protests inspired by Egypt. Below, a roundup of protests across the Middle East.
Anger rages through the Middle East and North Africa
From Benghazi to Bahrain, a new generation clashed with government forces, demanding more freedom and an end to autocratic control.
Bahrain police break up protest camp, three killed
Bahraini police stormed a protest camp in central Manama on Thursday, killing three people in a swift move to prevent protesters from emulating Egyptians whose Tahrir Square protests helped topple Hosni Mubarak.
Goodspeed Analysis: Is Libya ripe for revolution? Probably not
“Libya’s political order is beginning to fray, but as long as the state continues to provide jobs and services, demands for additional civil and political rights will remain muted,” predicts a recent report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
