It seems that Trey Parker and Matt Stone may have been more accurate with their parody of the US military in the South Park movie than they probably intended. Terrifyingly, here in Iraq, Google Earth has uncovered that the US military might really have an Operation Human Shield.

Thanks to Stephen Johnson and Chris Holland.

Crikey, it seems there’s been some sort of serious traffic accident here in Baghdad. I wonder what happened?

Whatever happened, given the state of the traffic, I can’t say I’m that surprised… :-/ That isn’t an isolated example eiter - the traffic’s like that all over the place!

Scary stuff.

Thanks to Marco Olivo, Gydo Matthijssen, Bleij and rob.

Taking its name from the nearby city of Dohuk, also spelled Dahuk, Dohuk Dam supplies the city with drinking water and has a 45m wide Kurdistan flag painted onto the Dam. Top to bottom the flag is red, white and green with a yellow sun in the middle.

Dohuk is located in Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous political entity located in Northern Iraq, although Kurdish nationalists call this “South Kurdistan” with “North Kurdistan” being in, uh, Southeast Turkey. I’m confused.

So, despite being technically in Iraq, the people here proudly fly the flag of Kurdistan and painted it on their dam - unlike the Kurdish regions of neighbouring countries Iran, Syria, and Turkey - where flying the flag is a criminal offence.

Thanks: Rawand Nawroly & J. L. Precup

The Al-Askari shrine in Samarra, Iraq was one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims.

Sadly this distinctive gold dome was destroyed last week by bombers hoping to escalate tension in the area (BBC News Report).

Thanks: Tom & Adam

Originally due to be finished this year, it seems that all construction has come to a halt at the Arahman Mosque in Baghdad. The place is absolutely colossal, and the fittingly large cranes used in the construction can still be clearly seen at maximum zoom. Incredible image though, and make sure you check out this ground-level one too.

Just to the north is the much-further-from-finished, but still worth a peek, Grand Saddam Mosque, which was originally slated for completion in 2015, but which I don’t suppose will ever get built now.

Thanks to woowoowoo and david.

During the 1980s Saddam committed money from oil revenues to build many over-the-top monuments around Baghdad. The most famous is the now toppled statue of Saddam (it’s pretty hard to spot from the satellite photo) but most of the other monuments are still standing and make much better “top-down” viewing.

The Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad was dedicated to Iraqis lost in the Iran-Iraq war and supposedly represents a shield falling from the hands of a dying warrior. During the US occupation this was central to the “Green Zone” and used as the army headquarters.

To the west of the monument are the parade grounds. Each end of the parade grounds is marked by gigantic replicas of Saddam’s arms holding swords, constructed partially from the melted down rifles of dead soldiers. Although most would agree that Iraq lost the war with Iran the hands were built to commemorate Iraq’s supposed victory.

The Shaheed Monument was built to commemorate Iraqi soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war. The two large blue domes sit in the middle of an artificial lake, with an eternal flame at the centre.

Thanks: Matt, Doug, Keith T., Daniel, Todd Day, Sayf Sharif, Hans Masing, Sig

In the waters of Shatt al-Arab in Basrah, Iraq, lie the wrecks of several ships, some just lying there floating on their sides, others half-submerged and seemingly covered in rust (or perhaps it’s actually damage from explosions?)

They look like oil tankers (at least I don’t think they look like military craft) but I guess that these shipwrecks are a litle different to the ones we usually post. However, they’re still fascinating to look at from up here.

There’s actually loads of these ships lying around in varying states of decay. In fact it’s all a bit creepy…

Thanks to Serge Lyubomudrov, Ian Luria and James.

Another landing strip in Iraq which, like most of them, has been made unusable by placing sandbags at regular intervals along the runways. But who’s that dead body on the runway?

Here at GgSs we get a lot of submissions of clouds, but they are mostly pretty unexciting. That said, I really like this shadow formed by a cloud over Munich Airport. Can you (like me) see the footballer, facing east, about to kick the ball? Or, (like submitter Sebas) do you see a traveller, walking east, carrying a handbag in his right hand?

Thanks: Mark Huijser & Sebas