Word: basra
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...Earlier this year Kasid returned to his hometown of Basra by invitation of the Ministry of Culture after he translated the C.R. Ramuz-Igor Stravinsky opera The Soldier's Tale into Arabic. He has no plans to return permanently, however, and sees the diaspora as being potentially fruitful for artistic expression. "There's a new [Iraqi] generation involved in [British] culture but related to ours - so this relationship can create something new for the future...
...Romance was never the norm in Iraq, a conservative Muslim society in which arranged marriages are common. But before the war, in big cities like Baghdad and Basra, and especially on their university campuses, young Iraqis could have romantic liaisons and aspire to marry for love, even if that meant crossing the sectarian divide. Among the educated classes, Shi'ite-Sunni unions were not frowned upon. It was even possible to date: in Baghdad, courting couples, often accompanied by a chaperone, would meet at fruit-juice kiosks or ice-cream parlors or in one of the restaurants along the banks...
...Iranians may even have been in on the planning. Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, the group that most likely executed the kidnapping, answers to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The theory is that the kidnapping was in retaliation for the British killing of a Sadr commander in Basra on May 25 and an American attack on the Mahdi Army in Sadr city the following...
...traders tell me the principal market for stolen crude is Basra, Iraq's only access to the Gulf. Fadhila, the strongest Shi'a militia in the city, pretty much monopolizes the trade. Fadhila currently offers pilfered oil for $10-12 a barrel. Buyers have to arrange for small freighters to ship it to Dubai, where it is sold at the dock for around $30 a barrel. The oil is sold on the international markets, commonly using a false certificate of origin or blended with other oil to disguise its origin. More and more frequently, however, co-opted employees in Iraq...
...current Iraqi battalion commander in south Ghazaliya, Col. Jabar, has a much better reputation here than his predecessor. He comes from Basra, whereas his predecessor, Col. Sabah, grew up in a Shi'ite neighborhood adjacent to Ghazaliya. Both men are Shi'ites, but Jabar has no personal stake in Ghazaliya...