Iraqis unite to celebrate soccer triumph

Soccer fans take to the streets of the Shiite enclave of Sadr City in Baghdad after Iraq's national soccer team defeated Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup finals. Sunday's championship - a first - was cheered throughout the country.

A man with colors and symbols of the Iraqi flag painted on his face celebrates in Karbala, Iraq, after the Iraqi soccer team won the Asian Cup on Sunday.

U.S. deaths

As of Sunday, at least 3,648 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Baghdad, Iraq ? It was a day Iraqis will remember for years to come.

Millions watched Sunday as the underdog Iraqi national soccer team won its first Asian Cup, beating three-time champions Saudi Arabia, 1-0, in overtime.

Fans took to the streets to celebrate across Iraq – in Kurdish areas to the north, Shiite holy cities to the south and several neighborhoods in the capital.

Revelers took to the streets on foot, painting their faces with the tri-color Iraqi flag, throwing candy or shooting fireworks in triumph. Iraqi soldiers waved from passing vehicles. Honking cars clogged the main route into Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. Embassy and U.S. military posts.

Sporadic gunfire, much of it deemed to be celebratory, still could be heard hours after the game ended. At least two civilians were killed in clashes with Baghdad police and two more in gunfire after the game, police said.

Khadim Lafta Alwan, a government worker, was among those shooting in the southern city of Basra.

“It’s a triumph and unity for Iraqis, a glorious day. Why not celebrate?” said Alwan, 37.

Leaders from various sects, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim; Vice President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and members of the largest Sunni Arab bloc congratulated the team on its win Sunday, as did Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq.

“This is a gift to the united Iraqi people, to the different spectrums of the Iraqi people,” said midfielder Nashaat Akram as he stood drenched in sweat on the field in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In Baghdad, the victory by the team fans call “The Lions of the Two Rivers,” after the Tigris and Euphrates, reminded Shiite Muslim laborer Muhammed Hussein of Iraq’s potential.

“These players helped us keep our faces up,” Hussein, 43, said. “They showed us what the real Iraq is and how we can work hard to be something.”

Although parliament remained in session Sunday, it was eclipsed by news of the game.

Zuhair Muhammed Jabir, a policeman in the southern city of Hilla, said the last time he was so happy was the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.

“Now we are facing all this terror and violence – Iraq is bleeding,” he said. “The win is a bandage healing those wounds. It’s a lesson to politicians that Iraqis can be one. We were all supporting our team, none of us was saying this player is a Sunni, a Shiite or Kurd.”