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| Iraq | |
| Iraq: small fry thrive as Al-Qaeda big fish flee | |
| 2008-04-29 | |
| The Sunni Arab sheikh smiled happily as a torch in a darkened room lit up a water tank teeming with pin-sized larvae. Now that the Al-Qaeda big fish have fled, the carp small fry are thriving. "Last year Al-Qaeda prevented us from doing any fish farming," said Sheikh Jaffar Hussein al-Massudi whose village of Khidr, about 60 kilometres (36 miles) south of Baghdad, is slap-bang in the middle of the so-called Triangle of Death near the major town of Iskandiriyah in Babil province. "Now they're gone the ponds are being restored, the pumps serviced and the breeding programmes started again," said the sheikh after visiting hatcheries where eggs milked from females are fertilised, hatched into fry, reared to fingerlings and then stocked in dams fed by the Euphrates.
The illuminated fry now dancing in the torchlight represent a good first step in a delicate three-month process that it is hoped will end with fat fish landing on dinner tables in Baghdad. Carp has been a major part of the Iraqi diet for centuries -- especially when grilled or smoked on an open fire to produce a delicacy known as Masguf. During the former regime, many fish farms, because they are lucrative, were taken over by the state and given to members of Saddam Hussein's family. With Saddam's ouster in the 2003 US-led invasion, the farms fell back into the hands of private farmers. In Khidr, however, the freedom was short-lived. "Al-Qaeda took over the farmlands around November 2006," said Sheikh Jaffar. "They not only stole and sold all the fish but they smashed the water pumps, causing the water to stagnate and remaining fish stocks to die." He said that among those who took up residence in Khidr, with its lush green fields, date palms, fish ponds and fruit orchards, was Omar al-Baghdadi, a top leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq who the US military says is a mere "cyber-creation" designed to give the group an Iraqi face. But Sheikh Jaffar, a gently spoken man in his forties with a bushy moustache, insists Baghdadi was among senior jihadists who set up in Khidr and launched attacks that earned the Sunni area its "Triangle of Death" notoriety. "For some time he used the farms here as his headquarters," said the sheikh, adding that all but one or two families in Khidr fled the area when the Al-Qaeda fighters began a killing spree. He too had whisked his family away. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 I have a picture of some guys cooking carp on a street corner in the Karbalah district of Baghdad. How do I post a picture? |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Texas 2008-04-29 23:09 |
| #5 Sold the fish and smashed the pumps. Wow! Truly the defenders of Islam. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-04-29 13:10 |
| #4 Indeed it does feel alright. Carpe a Dime Live long and prosper with fish. |
| Posted by: George Smiley 2008-04-29 08:52 |
| #3 Fish are unislamic? Posted by: gorb see: "The illuminated fry now dancing in the torchlight..." |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-29 07:54 |
| #2 Fish are unislamic? Posted by: gorb 2008-04-29 01:02 Yes, very un-Islamic. The only animal allowed by Allah (phu!) is the goat. You must eat goat, you must sleep with goat, you give goat to your bride's daddy as wedding bootie. Next to leetle boys and girls, Mohammed (phu! phu!) loved leetle goats. |
| Posted by: www 2008-04-29 02:18 |
| #1 "Al-Qaeda took over the farmlands around November 2006," said Sheikh Jaffar. "They not only stole and sold all the fish but they smashed the water pumps, causing the water to stagnate and remaining fish stocks to die." Fish are unislamic? |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-04-29 01:02 |