IRAQ: Abraham stopped here

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For incongruity, it’s hard to beat the oasis at the far reach of the massive Al Asad air base.

After miles and miles of a barren landscape comes a small pond surrounded with tall reeds and hundreds of date palms. Minnows swim. Birds and bullfrogs abound.

Legend holds that Abraham, patriarch to the Jewish, Christian and Muslim peoples, stopped at this oasis with his family while traveling from Mesopotamia to Canaan. A small village grew up at the oasis in the 20th century but Saddam Hussein had its residents ousted when he built the base.

When the Marines took over, they cleaned up an accumulation of trash and put up concertina wire. A signpost in English and Arabic says believers find that visiting the oasis is ‘a step toward God.’

It’s also a step toward something else: the Iraqi army is building a base across the street.

— Tony Perry in Al Asad

Flickr page of freelance reporter Kimberly Johnson