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Babylon & Beyond

IRAQ: Honeymoon in Baghdad?

By Tina Susman

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The car was festooned with flowers. The bride was resplendent in a puffy white gown. ‎And what a tall, strapping bride she was! A bit too tall for soldiers who stopped the ‎seemingly happy couple as they approached a military checkpoint north of Baghdad ‎on Sunday.

According to a statement from Iraq’s Ministry of Defense, ‎Iraqi troops got suspicious when the car tried to pass through the checkpoint without ‎stopping. The occupants were ordered out of the vehicle, and a pat-down search ‎quickly revealed that this was no ordinary couple. Iraqi officials said the bride, groom ‎and two escorts actually were wanted men suspected of involvement in insurgent ‎activity. The ministry statement included photographs of the men, both before and ‎after the wedding.‎

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— Tina Susman in Baghdad

Babylon & Beyond
Tina Susman

Tina Susman, an Oakland native, is a former New York-based national correspondent who joined the Los Angeles Times as Baghdad bureau chief in January 2007. She got her start as a foreign correspondent with the Associated Press in South Africa, covering the end of apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela. Dubbed by past editors “the master of disaster,” she has also worked in west Africa and done stints in Europe, Asia and Haiti. She is thrilled to now be in a city with quirky features, non-stop news, and functioning phones and electricity. She left The Times in 2015.

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