Smugglers In Iraq Have A New Trade: Corpse

NPR ^ | 11/05/09 | QUIL LAWRENCE

[TigerLikesRooster]

Smugglers In Iraq Have A New Trade: Corpse

by QUIL LAWRENCE

EnlargeJoseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images A tomb at the cemetery of Najaf in 2008. The Wadi al-Salam, or Valley of Peace, in Najaf is one of the largest cemeteries in the world. Millions of Shiite Muslims over the centuries have been brought here for burial from all over the world.

text sizeAAANovember 4, 2009 Iraqi and U.S. officials have expressed concerns about the traffic of weapons and drugs across the country's porous borders, but there is also an older and more surprising commodity being smuggled into Iraq — cadavers.

For centuries, Shiite Muslims from all over the world have sought to be buried in what might be the world's largest cemetery, in the holy city of Najaf. During the past 30 years of rebellions, invasion and war with Iran, the traffic of the dead was halted. But it is now a big business once again.

Receiving The Dead In The Valley Of Peace

The cemetery in Najaf is called the Valley of Peace, though for the living it is crowded, dusty and almost always echoing with the sounds of grief.

[Candor7]

Yes, well, how about a nice lib storey about " I buried my Shia Mother , 200 days and nights via corpsecamel back from India."

Blithering idjits.

Something smells a bit off.

[Eagles6]

I think there was a big battle here with US Army kicking a$$. mooslims don’t care about the living or the dead.