Samawah or As Samawah (Arabic language:السماوة) is a city in Iraq, 280 km southeast of Baghdad. The population was 250,000 in 2005. ^[1] The Arabic language (Arabic: ‎ transliterated: ), or simply Arabic (Arabic: ‎ transliterated: ), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Location of Baghdad within Iraq Baghdad (Arabic: ‎ translit: , Kurdish: Bexda, from Persian Baagh-daad or Bag-Da-Du meaning “Garden of God” [1]) is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate. ...

Iraqi policeman guards the governor's house in Samawah.

The city of Samawa is the modern capital of the Al Muthanna Governorate. The city is located mid-way between Baghdad and Basra, and at the northern edge of Muthanna province. The province was established in 1975, prior to that date it was a unified province along with Qadissiya (Diwaniya) and Najaf. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2008x1800, 646 KB) Summary Iraqi policeman guards the governors house in Samawah, Iraq. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2008x1800, 646 KB) Summary Iraqi policeman guards the governors house in Samawah, Iraq. ... Al Muthanna (Arabic: المثنى) is one of the governorates of Iraq. ... Al Muthanna (Arabic: المثنى) is one of the governorates of Iraq. ...

History and attractions

The city is built on both sides of the Euphrates river, there are four bridges in the centre of town for crossing between the two sides. The west bank of the city contains the commercial heartland of the city, including the old town and the Jewish quarter 'agd al yahood'.

Sug Al Masgoof, covered market in Central Samawa, is the historical market in the city

The west bank is the site of the covered market 'Sug Al Masgoof' which dates to the Ottoman period. The area surrounding the suq al masgoof is the old city with its byzantine of crowded markets and streets. Image File history File links Shorja_samawa. ... Image File history File links Shorja_samawa. ...

Old city around sug al masgoof with crowded buildings

The eastern side of the city including 'Qushla' has a more modern feel and contains a number of estates of apartment blocks built during the 1970s and 1980s, the main stadium which is home to the local Muthanna team as well as technical colleges and the polytechnic. Image File history File links Crowded_old_town. ... Image File history File links Crowded_old_town. ...

Samawa's local football team in the home stadium

The most famous attraction of Samawa are the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk. This was the largest city in Sumeria (extending over 2 km²), and dates to 4000 BC. Uruk was not only the largest urban connurbation of the first urban civilisation on earth, but is also the place where the first written script was discovered (oldest scripts dating back to 3300 BC). Image File history File links Samawa_football_team. ... Image File history File links Samawa_football_team. ... Uruk (Sumerian Unug, Biblical Erech, Greek Orchoë and Arabic Warka), was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates, on the line of the ancient Nil canal, in a region of marshes, about 140 miles SSE from Baghdad. ...

Samawa is built on both sides of the Euphrates, and surrounded by hundreds of palm groves that give it a tropical feel, especially in the southern and northern suburbs. The Euphrates (the traditional Greek name, Arabic: الفرات; Al-Furat, Hebrew: פְּרָת Perath, Kurdish: Firat, Turkish: Fırat, Old Persian: Ufrat, Syriac: ܦܪܘܬ or ܦܪܬ; Frot or Prâth, Akkadian: Pu-rat-tu) is the westernmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia (the other being the Tigris). ...

The palm groves of Samawa provide cool respite against the scorching heat of Mesopotamia. The city, dating back to antiquity, is surrounded by hundreds of palm groves, giving rise to the famous Iraqi folk song "The palm of Samawa".

. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1280x960, 524 KB) Summary The palm groves of samawa provide cool shade against the scorching heat of Mesopotamia. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1280x960, 524 KB) Summary The palm groves of samawa provide cool shade against the scorching heat of Mesopotamia. ...

Riverside walk on the west bank

Samawa has a large salt lake called Lake Sawa, which had a tourist village that has since fallen into disrepair. The lake is located 25km to the north of the city centre and is accessible by road. The lake has no obvious source (neither river nor ancient link to a sea). The water is extremely salty due to heavy evaporation in the searing heat of mesopotamia and supports no marine life. A unique feature of the lake is that the water is above ground level and surrounded by natural levees. Due to the high levels of salt in the lake, the levees heal themselves if an artificial break is made in the levee, stopping the water from flowing down to ground level. The salt levels also improve buoyancy, and many migratory birds walk on the lake, akin to the biblical tales of Jesus. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1226x791, 121 KB) Summary Riverside road in the southern suburbs of samawa city. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1226x791, 121 KB) Summary Riverside road in the southern suburbs of samawa city. ...

Al Muthanna province contains one of the most notorious prisons in Iraq, which has been used since the time of the monarchy (1921-1958). "Nigret Al Salman" located in the small town of Al-Salman 200km south of the capital Samawa is a desert prison camp built in the style of a fortress where thousands have perished over the decades. It was used to house the prisoners from the Dujail massacre before their execution, as well as Kurdish prisoners since the first Kurdish revolts of the 1950s.

The notorious desert prison "Nigret al Salman"

During 1964, the people of Samawa gained popular fame for rescuing over 1000 political prisoners of the Iraqi Communist Party who were sent in a 'Train of Death' (qutar al maut) metal cargo rolling stock from Baghdad to Samawa (en route to the Nigret Al Salman prison in the Desert) in 50C heat. The train was attacked by the population at the railway station and the dehydrated prisoners were watered and fed. Still over 100 prisoners had already perished en-route to Samawa. Image File history File links Nigret_al_salman. ... Image File history File links Nigret_al_salman. ...

The "Saray" on the east bank of Samawa is the historical home of authority, and authoritarianism in Samawa and dates from the period of the Ottoman Turkish Occupation. It has been the focus of revolts and popular uprisings by the local population for the past century including most recently in 1991 when hundreds of prisoners including women and children, as well as Kuwaiti hostages kidnapped by the Iraqi occupation forces in 1990 were freed from their captors by the people of Samawa.

Saray in Eastern Samawa, the notorious historical home of state repression

Samawa General Hospital

Samawa's medical facilities had improved drastically since 2003, the renovation of the central hospital with the aid of Japanese development funds have realised a quantum leap in medical provision for the residents of the province. New facilites such as MRI scanning have been added to the existing medical units. Image File history File links Saray_samawa. ... Image File history File links Saray_samawa. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Hospital. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Hospital. ...

Religion

Primarily Shiite, the town had been cut off almost entirely by Saddam after the Gulf War. Vast majority of the people are followers of Shi'a Islam. However, historically Samawa has been a mixed Jewish and Shia city^{[citation needed]}. The terrorisation of the Jewish minority by Arab nationalists in the 1940s and 50s drove most of them into exile. The Synagogue, which has been abandonded since the flight of the jews, still exists in the qushla quarter of the east bank of Samawa. It is called the 'Torat Synagogue'. Combatants U.S.-led coalition Iraq Commanders George H. W. Bush Norman Schwarzkopf Colin Powell Saddam Hussein Ali Hassan al-Majid Hussein Kamel Strength 660,000 545,000 Casualties 345 dead, 1,000 wounded 25,000 - 100,000 dead, 100,000 - 300,000 wounded The 1991 Gulf War (also called... Shia Islam, also Shi`ite Islam or Shi`ism (Arabic: ‎ transliterated: Persian: ‎ ) is the second largest denomination of the religion of Islam. ...

In 1979-81 an ethnic cleansing campaign saw Shia Iraqis deemed to be of 'Persian' origin deported by the Baathi regime of Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, (Arabic: ), (born April 28, 1937 ), was the President of Iraq from 1979 until the United States-led invasion of Iraq reached Baghdad on April 9, 2003. ...

Today, there is still a small population of Assyrian Christians in the city. It has been suggested that Assyrian people be merged into this article or section. ...

Industries

The unemployment rate is high, though agriculture and mining are active^{[citation needed]}. The city, in spite of the lack of high value natural resources (oil and gas), and a lack of central government investment has managed to maintain lively small scale industrial, agricultural and alternative sectors despite the odds.

Samawa had the largest cement factories in the Middle East during the 1970s^{[citation needed]}, these have since fallen into disrepair, excarcebating the unemployment situation.

The southern cement factory in central Samawa. This is the oldest cement factory in the city and has been inoperational for 15 years.

The historical route between Mesopotamia and Saudi Arabia ran via Samawa, and it has been a main trading throughfare for Iraqi produce to Saudi Arabia. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1280x960, 556 KB) Summary Picture of southern cement factory in central Samawa. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1280x960, 556 KB) Summary Picture of southern cement factory in central Samawa. ...

Samawa is home to a rail yard for overhauling and maintaining the rolling stock and locomotives along the Baghdad-Basra rail routes.

Overhaul facilities for the railways are an important source of employment opportunities in this Mesopotamian city.

There was an overhaul facility for the Iraqi Armoured corps based in Samawa and belonging to the military Industrial Commission. Image File history File linksMetadata Rolling_stock_overhaul. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Rolling_stock_overhaul. ...

In terms of agriculture, the staple mesopotamian produce is grown in Samawa, such as dates, wheat, barley, citrus fruits and tomatoes. In addition Samawa is home to the small and rare trade in wild truffles, which grow in the desert regions of Muthanna province.

The "Bahr al Milh" or Salt Sea located 20km to the south west of Samawa city is the main source of industrial salts in Iraq and large salt mining and processing facilities are located there to exploit this resource.

Salt processing facilities in the Salt sea outside Samawa

A thriving industry in traditional sun-baked brick manufacture exists on the outskirts of Samawa using primarily female labourers for forming and drying bricks. Large temporary kilns with chimney stacks as high as 30m are constructed by villagers in the surrounding region to make baked bricks in the same methods as used during the Sumerian and Akkadian periods. Image File history File links Saltprocessingsmall. ... Image File history File links Saltprocessingsmall. ...

Samawa has its own media industry, with the recently reopened Muthanna TV broadcasting terrestrial transmission to Samawa and the province. It focuses primarily on local news and issues, however the station gained notoriety as the Robin Hood of Television when it broadcast the 2006 world cup games without licence using a single subscription to a pay-per-view satellite channel. The central government were unable to enforce a ruling against the TV station to stop the transmissions.

There is a small cottage industry of carpet makers in the city, primarily employing women. The advantages of the local carpet makers are the availability of cheap raw materials, wool from the desert bedu who use Samawa as their main trading post, and the availability of low cost labourers in this poor city.

Samawa railway station is conveniently located halfway between Baghdad and Basra

Image File history File linksMetadata Railway_station_samawa. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Railway_station_samawa. ...

Reaching Samawa

Samawa is served by a highway for road traffic from Baghdad and Basra. The railway station has passenger services from both Baghdad and Basra and is the cheapest form of transport. Please note however that the railways station is located approximately 4 kilometers to the west of central Samawa.

Security since 2003 invasion

Since the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the town has had the least amount of problems with Coalition forces, with insurgent activity practically non-existent^{[citation needed]}. Combatants Coalition Forces: United States United Kingdom Australia Poland Spain Japan Iraq Commanders Tommy Franks Saddam Hussein Strength 263,000 375,000 The 2003 invasion of Iraq, termed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the US administration, began on March 20. ...

Handover ceremony of power for Al Muthanna province in July 2006 at the Football stadium

Elements of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division took the town during a fierce running battle with emplaced Fedayeen forces in the days after the initial invasion. After the initial combat phase ended in May 2003, the 82nd was relieved by U.S. Marines from RCT-5, 1st Marine Division. Control of the city was handed over to Dutch forces in August 2003. Image File history File links Handover_ceremony. ... Image File history File links Handover_ceremony. ... The 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army was Constituted in the National Army as the 82nd Division on August 5, 1917, and was Organized on August 25, 1917, at Camp Gordon, Georgia. ... Fedayeen (from Arabic fidāī, plural fidāīyīn فدائيون, one who is ready to sacrifice his life for the cause) describes several distinct, primarily Arab groups at different times in history. ... The 5th Marine regiment is usually an integral part of the U.S. First Marine Division. ... The 1st Marine Division is the oldest, largest (active duty), and most decorated division-sized unit in the United States Marine Corps representing a combat-ready force of more than 19,000 men and women. ... The Royal Netherlands Army (Koninklijke Landmacht) is the land forces element of the Military of the Netherlands. ...

Japan Self-Defense Forces, stationed in Samawah since January 2004, are scheduled to leave by the end of July 2006.^[2] British and Australian troops departed, turning Samawah and the entire province into the first responsible for its own security and branded, in iraqi parlance as the first "green province", meaning fully independent.^[2] In 2004, the Japanese government ordered a deployment of troops to Iraq at the behest of the United States: A contingent of the Japan Self-Defense Forces was sent in order to assist the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. ...

See also

• List of places in Iraq
• Deployment of Japanese troops to Iraq

This is a list of places in Iraq. ... In 2004, the Japanese government ordered a deployment of troops to Iraq at the behest of the United States: A contingent of the Japan Self-Defense Forces was sent in order to assist the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2005/12/1201-2.html
2. ^ ^a b http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2006/20060622_5488.html