Mahmoudiyah ( ar, المحمودية) (also transliterated Al-Mahmudiyah, Al-Mahmoudi, or
Al-Mahmudiya, prefixed usually with Al-) is a rural city south of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
. Known as the "Gateway to Baghdad," the city's proximity to Baghdad made it central to the counterinsurgency campaign.
Al-Mahmudiya has approximately 350,000 inhabitants, most of whom are
Sunni Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
, over 75% of
Al-Mahmudiya are Sunni, as reported by the UNHCR IDPs list. While the control of rural areas around the area of Mahmudiyah is by Sunnis, such as the towns of Latifiyah and Yusufiyah, the Shiites remain in the center of Mahmoudiyah city.
War crime incident
During the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
, a
war crime took place in Mahmudiyah on March 12, 2006, in which five soldiers of the
502d Infantry Regiment
The 502nd Infantry Regiment (502nd IR), previously titled the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (502nd PIR), is an infantry regiment of the United States Army. The regiment was established shortly after U.S. entry into World War II, and was ass ...
, raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl,
Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi
The Mahmudiyah rape and killings were war crimes involving the gang-rape and murder of 14-year-old Iraqi girl Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and the murder of her family by United States Army soldiers on March 12, 2006. It occurred in the family' ...
(an Iraqi Sunni Arab girl) and then murdered her, after killing her father Qassim Hamza Raheem, her mother Fakhriya Taha Muhasen and her six-year-old sister Hadeel Qassim Hamza al-Janabi. The soldiers then burned the bodies to conceal evidence of the crime. Four of the soldiers were convicted of rape and murder, and the fifth was convicted of lesser crimes.
Civil infrastructure
Efforts have been conducted into rebuilding the city. The current mayor (as of January 2007) is Muayid Fadil Hussein Habib.
Mahmudiyah project helps boost local economy
/ref>
Notable people
* Fadhil Abbas al-Ka'bi
Fadhil Abbas al-Ka'bi ( ar, فاضل عباس الكعبي, translit=Fāḍil ʻAbbās al-Kaʻbī;1955) is an Iraqi author of children's literature and childhood studies. From 1978, he turned to journalism and was appointed in various positions ...
, (1950) writer and poet
See also
* Triangle of Death (Iraq)
The Triangle of Death is a name given to a region south of Baghdad during the 2003–2011 occupation of Iraq by the U.S. and allied forces which saw major combat activity and sectarian violence from early 2003 into the fall of 2007.
Description
...
References
External links
San Diego Union Tribune
article about Marines in Al-Mahmoudiyah.
Map
of Al-Mahmudiyah from multimap.com.
Army article
about the Al-Buhaira Elementary School remodeling project in Mahmudiyah from March 2006.
Stars and Stripes
article from February 2006 by Andrew Tilghman about militia vs. militia violence in Al-Mahmudiyah.
A video
from March 2006 (fro
Chris Brewer
who was in the Air Force in the 206th Broadcast Operations Detachment, American Forces Network) of Al-Mahmoudiyah's city center.
{{Districts of Iraq
Populated places in Baghdad Province
District capitals of Iraq