Haifa Street

Haifa Street (or Hayfa Street) (Arabic: شارع حيفا)is a two miles long street in Baghdad, s.Prior to the 1990-1991 gulf war, the British Embassy in Iraq was located on Haifa Street.

During the American invasion of Iraq

Haifa Street was the location of the June 2004 Operation Haifa Street, [cite web| url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/oif-haifa-street.htm|title=Operation Haifa Street| publisher=Globalsecurity.org| date=2006-06-15| accessdate=2006-01-10] and the September 2004 Haifa Street helicopter incident, in which a helicopter fired on a burning American vehicle and killed 12 civilians, including journliast Mazen al-Tumeizi. Two days later a massive car bombing on Haifa Street killed 47. [cite news| date=September 15, 2004| title=Blast Kills 47 in Baghdad - Hell on Haifa Street| url=http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick09152004.html| first=Patrick| last=Cockburn| accessdate=2006-01-10] American troops stationed in Baghdad at the time dubbed the street "Grenade Alley" and "Purple Heart Boulevard". [cite news| url=http://www.military.com/NewContent/0,13190,SS_092204_Ugly,00.html| title=Patrols Turn Ugly on Baghdad's Haifa Street| date=September 22, 2004| first=Lisa| last= Burgess| publisher=Stars and Stripes European Edition| accessdate=2006-01-10] By mid-2005 there were reports that conditions on Haifa Street had calmed, [cite news| url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0526/p01s02-woiq.html| date=May 26, 2005| title=A violent street finds calm| first= Scott| last= Peterson | publisher=The Christian Science Monitor| accessdate=2007-01-10] and control of the street was turned over to Iraqi forces in February of 2006cite news| url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21038060-2703,00.html| title=Baghdad street becomes new Fallujah| publisher=The Australian| date=January 10, 2007| accessdate=2007-01-10] but as of early 2007 the street remains riddled with insurgent hideouts. Fifty people were killed in a US-led operation there on January 9, 2007 [cite news| url=http://www.dawn.com/2007/01/10/top14.htm| date=January 10, 2007| title=50 killed in US-led operation in Iraq| accessdate=2007-01-10] and another thirty were killed on January 24. [cite news| url=http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16537080.htm | title= U.S. and Iraqi troops storm Baghdad neighborhood again| first=Richard| last=Mauer| publisher=McClatchy Newspapers| date=Jan 24, 2007| accessdate=2006-01-25] The street's residents are predominantly Sunni and some have claimed that American forces had been duped by Iraq's Shia-dominated security forces into helping drive them out. Recent U.S. intelligence now suggests that this is almost certainly true, as does news reporting from JourneymanTV. [ [http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=58449 Journeyman Pictures : short films : Haifa Street ] ]

Gallery

External links

* [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=nlNORX006-c Video of gun battle on Haifa Street, January 2007]

References