Iraqis Take Control, but Bridge Remains Off Limits

December 31, 2008, 2:35 pm

By Abeer Mohammed
14th July Bridgein Baghdad in 2003. (Photo:Marwan Naamani/Agence France-Presse)

BAGHDAD — For years the Green Zone has kept most Iraqis out some of the most impressive buildings, palaces and monuments in Baghdad. As a journalist, I feel lucky to have special access to these structures — especially when I go across 14th July Bridge into the Green Zone.

Passing over the bridge now brings back good memories of going to college at the University of Baghdad in Jadariya before the war began.

Adel al-Ardawi, an Iraqi historian, said: “This bridge held much of the traffic in Baghdad when it was opened during the former regime, but now it lies inside the Green Zone.”

The 14th of July Bridge spans the Tigris River and connects Karada Sharqiya (east Baghdad and the Green Zone) and Karadat Mareim (west Baghdad and the Red Zone). The name of the bridge refers to the day in 1958 that Iraq’s King Faisal was overthrown in a military coup. Brig. Abdel Karim Kassem became Prime Minister Kassem and construction of the bridge, which had been conceived under the king, finally began. The prime minister would not live to travel across it. Abdul Salam Arif, who helped lead the overthrow the king only to fall out of favor with the prime minister, returned from exile in 1964 and killed Mr. Kassem. In Prime Minister Arif’s first year in power the bridge was finally completed.

“It is the only suspension bridge in Baghdad”, said Mohammad Jwad, a civil engineer. “But Baghdadis have forgotten about it. It is now part of Green Zone which seems to be in another country; not in Iraq.”

The bridge was damaged in the first Gulf War, but I would travel across it daily. The American military briefly shut it down for repairs after they invaded Baghdad, reopened it in a lavish ceremony and then promptly shut down again after a suicide bombing a few weeks later. For most Iraqis it has remained that way unless they possess a badge issued by the Americans.

It seems unfair that my fellow Iraqis are not allowed on the bridge and are cut off from their past. Tomorrow the Americans will hand over formal control of the Green Zone to Iraqis. Although American and Iraqi troops are expected to continue joint patrols of the 14th of July Bridge, the span will remain off limits for now to most Iraqis.