Collecting Christmas trees on the streets of Karbala and canceling celebrations in Kirkuk

The announcement to collect pine trees from the streets of Karbala, which were decorated for Christmas and New Year celebrations, has been implemented.

According to the Iraqi news agency "Baratha", Nasif Al-Khattabi, the head of the Supreme Security Committee and the governor of Karbala, has taken strict measures to deal with people who intend to insult the city and its religious identity. In this regard, he issued a notification regarding the collection of pine trees that are seen on the streets of Karbala on the occasion of Christmas and New Year celebrations, which was implemented last Friday, December 29, and the trees were collected.

The head of the Karbala High Security Committee said during a meeting held last week: "We emphasize the importance of the sanctity of Karbala province and its religious character, and preventing the manifestations and practices that appear during celebrations. In this meeting, we emphasized to shopkeepers and shopping centers that they must adhere to the governorate's directives and instructions in this regard."

Marwan Al-Ani, the media officer for the Iraqi Kirkuk province, also issued a statement saying: "In order to sympathize with our brothers and friends in the Hamdaniyah incident and the unfortunate events in Palestine, any special New Year's celebrations are prohibited in Kirkuk."

Iraqi Christians, who number about half a million, attended Christmas celebrations in small numbers this year, out of solidarity and sympathy for the Palestinians killed in the Israeli-Palestinian war, as well as the large number of Iraqi citizens who died in fires in the past few months.

Iraqi church pastors also announced that the upcoming Christmas and New Year celebrations will be limited out of solidarity with Palestine and the victims of a fire in the Christian city of Hamdaniyah that killed at least 120 people at a wedding.