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The destruction of the Firdos Square statue was an event in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and marked the symbolic end of the Battle of Baghdad. ==Meaning== In April 2002, the 12-meter (39 ft) statue was erected in honor of the 65th birthday of Saddam Hussein. On April 9, 2003, the statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square, directly in front of the Palestine Hotel where the world's journalists had been quartered, was toppled by a U.S. M88 armored recovery vehicle surrounded by a group of Iraqis. One such futile attempt by sledgehammer wielding weightlifter Kadhem Sharif particularly caught media attention.〔 According to the book ''Shooter'', the first plan was to attach a cable between the M88 and the statue's torso area. Someone pointed out that if the cable snapped, it might whiplash and kill people. The alternate method chosen was to wrap a chain around the neck.〔 Eventually, the M88 was able to topple the statue which was jumped and stomped upon by Iraqi citizens who then decapitated the statue and dragged it through the streets of the city hitting it with their shoes. The destruction of the statue was shown live on cable news networks as it happened and made the front pages of newspapers and covers of magazines all over the world - symbolizing the fall of the Hussein government. The images of the statue destruction provided a clear refutation of Information Minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf's reports that Iraq had been winning the war. A green, abstract sculpture by Bassem Hamad al-Dawiri now stands on the site of the former statue. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Firdos Square statue destruction」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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