Hilla

see also: Etymology of Hilla

Al-Hilla also written Hilla , Al-Ḩillah or Hillah ) is a city of the center of the Iraq, located on the Euphrate, to 100 km in the south of Baghdad. Its population is estimated at 364,700 inhabitants in 1998. It is the capital of the province of Babil. It is located close to the antiques quoted of Babylon, Borsippa and Kish, in a mainly agricultural area intensively irrigated thanks to the water pumped directly in the river, allowing a varied production of cereals, fruits and textiles.

The town of Hilla was a time an important center of education Chiite. The tomb of the Prophète of the Old Testament named Ézéchiel is located in a village of the surroundings. The city was founded in 1101. It became an important administrative center under the empires Othoman and Britannique. Hilla was the theater of important combat in 1920, during a revolt against the British, when 300 soldiers of Manchester Regiment were massacred in the city.

After war

Hilla was the scene of confrontations relatively violent one at the time of the third War of the Gulf, primarily around on April 1st, 2003. The Iraqi forces made up of the Division Medina and the Iraqi Republican guard had losses which we know many but who could not be correctly estimated. At least several hundreds of losses were reported with dimensions Iraqi following the wild combat the opponent to the Armée with the United States. After this battle, the soldiers of the US Army were sent Baghdad and the US Marine Body took for responsibility the maintenance for safety in Hilla. Little time after the invasion, of many buildings brought back the presence of a common grave close to Hilla. The citizens and the local members of ORHA then worked in collaboration in order to exhume the bodies of thousands of Iraqi who was assassinated by the forces of the safety of Saddam Hussein during rising against his government in 1991.

The first division of US Navy established a base in one of the de luxe hotels of Saddam Hussein located at approximately 1,5 kilometers in the north of Hilla. It proved that it is about the historical site of Babylon, and that this had caused even more damage on the archaeological ruins of the ancient city.

Three hundreds - Military Compagnie sixty-twelfth of Police endeavoured to make apply the law and the order and dealt with the drive of the forces of Iraqi Police in the town of June 2003 with October 2003; it after was sent to the Prison of Abu Ghraib. The city is since under a military occupation by the forces Polonaise.

The city was relatively peaceful some time after the invasion but this one became the theater many bomb attacks. In February 2004, the Insurgés tried (they failed) to attack a camp controlled by the troops Polonaise with a trapped truck. One of the attacks of most fatal took place in this city, it acted of a car bomb which killed 125 people outside a hospital on February 28th, 2005. May 30th, 2005, two kamikazes killed 31 people (of which number of them belonged to the police force) and wounded 108 others of them.

The city has a good team of Basket-ball since this one gained the first national championship of the post-Saddam era.

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