Foundation stone laid for large residential project

SULAIMANIYA / IraqiNews.com: A foundation stone has been laid to mark the start of work on 960 residential units in Sulaimaniya city. This morning, the vice president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Kosrat Rasul Ali, laid the foundation stone during a ceremony attended by the deputy prime minister in the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG), Omar Fattah, and several officials. “We are looking forward to more projects to serve the region’s residents,” Ali said in his speech. Ali did not disclose the cost of the project. The modern city of Sulaimaniya, 364 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, was founded in 1748 by a Kurdish prince known as Ibrahim Pasha Baban who named it for his father Sulaiman Pasha. Since being founded as the capital of a powerful Kurdish principality it has grown to about 1,800,000 people. Sulaimaniya, known as Zamwa prior to its founding, is the cultural center of the Sorani-speaking Kurds and an important economic centre for Iraqi Kurdistan. SS (P) 1