Samawah
Samawah or As Samawah (Arabic language:السماوة) is a town in Iraq, 280 km southeast of Baghdad. The population was 124,400 in 2002. [1]
The city of Samawa is the modern capital of the Al Muthanna Governorate.
History
The most famous attraction of Samawa are the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk. This was the largest city in Sumeria (extending over 2 km²), and dates to 4000 BC. Uruk was not only the largest urban connurbation of the first urban civilisation on earth, but is also the place where the first written script was discovered (oldest scripts dating back to 3300 BC).
Religion
Primarily Shiite, the town had been cut off almost entirely by Saddam after the Gulf War. Vast majority of the people are followers of Shi'a Islam. However, historically Samawa has been a mixed Jewish and Shia city[citation needed]. The terrorisation of the Jewish minority by Arab nationalists in the 1940s and 50s drove most of them into exile. In 1979-81 an ethnic cleansing campaign saw Shia Iraqis deemed to be of 'Persian' origin deported by the Baathi regime of Saddam Hussein.
Today, there is still a small population of Assyrian Christians in the city.
Industries
The unemployment rate is high, though agriculture and mining are active[citation needed]. Samawa had the largest cement factories in the Middle East during the 1970s[citation needed], these have since fallen into disrepair, excarcebating the unemployment situation. 
The historical route between Mesopotamia and Saudi Arabia ran via Samawa, and it has been a main trading throughfare for Iraqi produce to Saudi Arabia.
Samawa is home to the rail yard for overhauling and maintaining the rolling stock and locomotives along the Baghdad-Basra rail routes. 
There was an overhaul facility for the Iraqi Armoured corps based in Samawa and belonging to the military Industrial Commission.
Attractions
Samawa is built on both sides of the Euphrates, and surrounded by palm groves 
. It has a large salt lake called Lake Sawa, which had a tourist village that has since fallen into disrepair.
Security since 2003 invasion
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Since the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, the town has had the least amount of problems with Coalition forces, with insurgent activity practically non-existent[citation needed].
Elements of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division took the town during a fierce running battle with emplaced Fedayeen forces in the days after the initial invasion. After the initial combat phase ended in May 2003, the 82nd was relieved by U.S. Marines from RCT-5, 1st Marine Division. Control of the city was handed over to Dutch forces in August 2003.
Japan Self-Defense Forces, stationed in Samawah since January 2004, are scheduled to leave by the end of July 2006.[2] British and Australian troops will also depart by then, turning Samawah and the entire province into the first responsible for its own security since Saddam was forcibly overthrown.[2]
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