Below is a news story from Iraq.... pay particular attention to the ending.
NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - A two-meter shark has been caught in a river in southern Iraq more than 200 km (160 miles) from the sea.
Karim Hasan Thamir said he was fishing with his sons last week when they spotted a large fish thrashing about in his net. "I recognized the fish as a shark because I have seen one on a television program," he told Reuters.
The shark was pulled from the mouth of an irrigation canal that joins the Euphrates River. The Euphrates joins the Tigris River further east to form the Shatt al-Arab waterway which flows south past Basra into the Gulf.
Dr. Mohamed Ajah, assistant dean of the college of science at Thi Qar University in Nassiriya, said barriers in river estuaries usually prevented sharks swimming upstream.
"In this case, I think this animal was there for a long time but no one had managed to see it," he said.
Locals blamed the U.S. military for the shark's presence.
Tahseen Ali, a teacher, said there was a "75 percent chance" Americans had put the shark in the water.
"This is very frightening for us. Our children always swim in the river and I believe that there are more sharks. I believe that America is behind this matter," said fisherman Hatim Karim.
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This was sent to me by a colleague..The shark was a bull shark, well known for swimming up freshwater tributaries... some are even caught 2,200 miles up the Mississippi River.
I think it is quite telling that such an event gets blamed on the United States, from the general populace that withstood the tyranny of Saddam Hussein's bloody regime.
