BAGHDAD, July 29 (Reuters) - Volleys of gunfire rang out
across Baghdad on Sunday as Iraqis celebrated their soccer team's
Asian Cup victory, a rare moment of joy and unity in four years of
relentless strife. "We achieved the dream. Allahu Akbar! (God is
greatest)," a crying fan told Iraqiya state television after Iraq's
1-0 victory over Saudi Arabia in Jakarta. Authorities earlier
imposed vehicle curfews and security forces went on heightened
alert after 50 people were killed by suicide attacks against fans
after Iraq's semi-final victory on Wednesday.
Iraqis ignored orders by security and religious leaders not to fire
into the air. Their team, who wore black arm bands in memory of the
dead, had never before made it to the Asian Cup final. Spontaneous
celebrations broke out in religiously mixed Baghdad as well as in
the Shi'ite south and the Kurdish north. The team featured players
from all Iraq's main communities -- Shi'ite and Sunni Arab as well
as Kurdish. Fans cried and danced in the streets, waving their
shirts in the air and hugging.
Iraq team captain Younis Mahmoud Khalaf heads
in the game-winning goal.
TV PRESENTERS DON FLAGS
Television presenters, draped in the red, white and black Iraqi
flag, dissolved into tears and CNN broke into its normal
programming to announce the win. A vehicle curfew had begun in
Baghdad at 4 p.m., half an hour before kick-off, and was to stay in
place until 6 a.m. on Monday (0200 GMT).
Similar bans were also announced in the volatile northern city of
Kirkuk and in the southern holy Shi'ite cities of Najaf and
Kerbala, where authorities said they had received intelligence of
possible car bomb attacks. Iraqi security forces detained two men
in a car packed with explosives in eastern Baghdad not long before
the match started, police said. They were accused of trying to
target soccer fans.
Baghdad's chief military spokesman, Brigadier General Qassim
Moussawi, had said security forces were preparing for "expected
terrorist attacks" on fans. Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, also issued a fatwa, or religious edict,
against firing weapons into the air, a traditional tribal
celebration. Two people were killed by falling bullets on
Wednesday.
Shops began emptying in Baghdad from about midday and office
workers went home hours early to watch the final. The Iraqi
Accordance Front, parliament's main Sunni Arab bloc, put off a
crisis meeting to discuss its boycott of the government because of
the match. Parliament announced the players would be rewarded, win
or lose.
Vendors across Iraq reported bumper sales of t-shirts, team shirts
and pictures of the team, as well as Iraqi flags. "The way the
Iraqi team has played makes us very happy. They succeeded in
unifying the Iraqi people, which the politicians failed to do,"
said Baqir Mohsin, a businessman in the southern Shi'ite city of
Basra.
