“I think it is important that people understand the consequences of launching wars on public health, on how people live. This country is forever changed,” Hagopian told AFP.
Eid al-Adha, which commemorates the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) to sacrifice his son at God’s command, is the biggest Muslim holiday of the year.
In Iraq, as around the Islamic world, people mark the holiday by slaughtering an animal, normally a sheep, and giving the meat to the poor.
As with various other religious occasions in Iraq, observance differs between Sunnis and Shiites.
“We ask God to keep the ghost of sectarian strife and civil war, on which those who sold their soul to the devil are insisting, away from our country,” Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in pre recorded remarks broadcast on Tuesday.
Other attacks in Kirkuk, Nineveh and Baghdad provinces on Tuesday killed three people and wounded three more, officials said.
Almost nothing is safe from attack by militants in Iraq, and violence has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict.
Secure targets such as prisons have been struck in recent months, along with cafés, markets, mosques, football fields, weddings and funerals.
Attacks on both Sunni and Shiite gatherings have raised fears of a relapse into the intense sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands of people in 2006-2007.
Analysts say the Shiite led government’s failure to address the grievances of Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority which complains of being excluded from government jobs and senior posts and of abuses by security forces has driven the surge in unrest.
Violence worsened sharply after security forces stormed a Sunni anti government protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23, sparking clashes in which dozens died.
And while the authorities have made some concessions aimed at placating anti government protesters and Sunnis in general, such as freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of Sunni anti-Al-Qaeda fighters, underlying issues remain unaddressed.
The government has enacted new security measures, stepped up executions and carried out wide ranging operations against militants for more than two months, but has so far failed to curb the violence.
About The Author
