Day #23 - "Nowruz!"

I have gotten a unique perspective on Iraq culture being here in Northern Iraq. Mosul is a mix of Iraqi Kurds (whose roots come from Kurdistan, Turkey and Southern Iran) and the Iraqi Sunni Arabs. The Kurds are culturally distinct from the Arabs, many are Christian and not Muslim, love the United States (for getting rid of Sadaam after he massacred nearly 500,000 Kurds in the late 1980s), and follow a more traditional Western lifestyle. The Arabs are complete opposites, and since they both occupy this region, they tend to not play well together.

We have some Kurds working for us here in the hospital and one was telling me that yesterday was "Nowruz", the Kurdish New Year, which conincides with the first day of spring. It is one of the most important days of the year for the kurds, and is celebrated with feasts, dancing, and playing with fire as seen in the picture below.

Meant to be a day of celebration, last night was anything but for the people of Mosul. The sound of gunfire and explosions could be heard coming from the city late into the night as the two groups battled it out. Because of this Mosul is one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq right now. The Arabs want us out because they see us as an obstacle in their way to re-gaining control of Northern Iraq. The Kurds support our presence because we liberated them from the Sadaam regime and they are in the minority since most of Iraq is Sunni and Shia Arabs.

For us in the hospital it was a relatively quite night. A patrol of U.S. soldiers was hit by an IED late last night but thankfully none of our troops were seriously injured. We could hear the conflict in the city but did not treat any of the casualties. Recently the medical rules of engagement have changed for the Army. In the beginning of the war we were treating all injured patients whether they were coalition forces or Iraqi natives. Now, we have stopped treating Iraqis unless they are working for the U.S. or are directly injured by our troops. This has seriously decreased business for the ER but is part of the attempt to re-establish the Iraqi healthcare system and have them take care of their own people.