Karbala, 60 miles southwest of Baghdad, is usually no more than a 90-minute drive through an increasingly green landscape of date palms, eucalyptus trees and reeds watered by the nearby Euphrates.

Lake Razazah, also known as Baḩr al-Milḩ or Lake Milh, is an artificial lake located to the west of the city of Karbala (visible in the photo ... circular dark patches litter the surrounding landscape ...