International

Gunfire Rings Out After Iraqi Soccer Team's Win

By John Burnett, Jacki Lyden

Published July 29, 2007 at 1:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

Iraqis defied a curfew and celebrated in the streets on Sunday after the Iraqi national soccer team scored an upset victory in the Asian Cup finals.

The "Lions of the Two Rivers" beat heavily favored Saudi Arabia 1-0 to bring home the title. Security forces are trying to avoid a repeat of the violence that claimed more than 50 lives last week, when crowds poured into the streets to celebrate Iraq's semifinal victory.

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John Burnett

John Burnett is a national correspondent based in Austin, Texas, who has been assigned a new beat for 2022—Polarized America—to explore all facets of our politically and culturally divided nation. Prior to this assignment, Burnett covered immigration, Southwest border affairs, Texas news and other national assignments. In 2018, 2019 and again in 2020, he won national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association for continuing coverage of the immigration beat. In 2020, Burnett along with other NPR journalists, were finalists for a duPont-Columbia Award for their coverage of the Trump Administration's Remain in Mexico program. In December 2018, Burnett was invited to participate in a workshop on Refugees, Immigration and Border Security in Western Europe, sponsored by the RIAS Berlin Commission.

Jacki Lyden

Longtime listeners recognize Jacki Lyden's voice from her frequent work as a substitute host on NPR. As a journalist who has been with NPR since 1979, Lyden regards herself first and foremost as a storyteller and looks for the distinctive human voice in a huge range of national and international stories.