« Previous | Main | Next »

Mosul Memories

June 25, 2008 9:51 PM

I have fond memories of playing dominoes at a tea shop overlooking the Tigris River in the northern city of Mosul. It is right at the end of the iron bridge that connects the old part of the town with the western suburbs, next to a huge market area. A charming open lawn shaded by willow trees, it was a place where men would gather to escape the heat of the sun, chat, and play endless games of dominoes, tiles clacking on the small tables at furious speeds.

I am not bad at dominoes -- but the locals there were better. I paid for the tea…

That was in 2004, and since then Mosul has been too dangerous to visit, a city taken over by al Qaeda with only a small U.S. presence around the airport and a general population who lived in constant terror.

Now much has changed in Mosul, as a combined U.S.-Iraqi force of 27,000 men marched into the city in May and managed to detain, kill or force out most of the al Qaeda fighters. This week we visited Mosul, and it was pretty quiet -- too quiet, in some places.

We drove up what the Iraqis had come to call "the road of death" in the west of the city, known to the U.S. military as Route Tampa -- seven miles of bullet-scarred, bomb-damaged, deserted buildings that until recently had been home to snipers and roadside bomb emplacers, waiting for army or police patrols they could attack. They have gone now, leaving behind rubble, burnt wiring, cartridge cases and scorch marks on the tarmac -- ugly abrasions of war.

Our tour guide was General Riyadh Tawfeeq, the Iraqi army commander in the city, and quite a character. He was keen to tell us that he is a big fan of U.S. westerns, and particularly likes movies with Kirk Douglas as the star. He said he saw himself playing the role of sheriff in Mosul -- just like the sheriff in Kirk Douglas movies, the general often has difficulties with outlaws who won't respect the law -- "But in the end," he said smiling, "the sheriff always wins."

Then we crossed the city to where the iron bridge spans the river -- and much to my delight the tea shop was still there. The soldiers who were taking us around didn't feel confident letting us cross the bridge on our own, and their big vehicles couldn't drive across, so the tea shop remained tantalizingly out of reach. But we met a man selling watermelons at the end of the bridge who told us cheerfully, "If we had been standing here six months ago, we would be dead."

Maybe in another six months I will be able to get back to that tea shop. And maybe I will get my domino revenge. Maybe.

June 25, 2008 in Current Affairs | Permalink | User Comments (2)

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c4df253ef00e5538ccee98834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Mosul Memories:

User Comments

Posted by: seah | Jun 26, 2008 5:03:44 AM

Posted by: char19145 | Jun 26, 2008 6:28:37 AM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments: