Photo By Sgt. Daniel West | Players from the Immigration team, blue jerseys, and Dawa party team, white jerseys,...... read more read more
By Sgt. Daniel T. West
41st Fires Brigade Public Affairs Office
FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq – Immigration defeated the Dawa party 2-0 in a qualifying match during a tournament sponsored by al Kut Iraqi police held at the al Kut police headquarters Sept. 18, 2008.
The tournament featured 32 teams from the area. Matches took place throughout the month of September and will culminate in a championship in early October. The winner will face the Iraqi security force's top team.
The tournament's goal is to broaden the success of a tournament held the previous month, designed as a community outreach program for the IPs.
"We want to show them we are human too, and hopefully, after the hospitality we show them, they will go back and tell others not to attack us because we have been so good to them," said Hayder.
After the first tournament, which sponsored teams from previously hostile neighborhoods around al Kut, the police were approached by groups and neighborhoods who hadn't participated.
"The Dawa party... came after the first tournament and asked if we were against them because we hadn't invited them to join us," he said. "We said that wasn't the case, and invited them to join this tournament."
The tournaments have served to bring the people together, said Hayder.
"Look at these teams," he said. "The Dawa party used to fight us, now we play soccer together. Some of the people on the Immigration team are Sunnis, playing alongside Shi'as peacefully. Soccer brought them together."
| Date Taken: | 09.25.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2008 02:43 |
| Story ID: | 24110 |
| Location: | AL KUT, IQ |
| Web Views: | 291 |
| Downloads: | 276 |
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