.Sunni Area Focus of Sectarian Cleansing
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Fresh attacks against Sunnis in a mixed neighborhood of northwestern Baghdad are raising new fears of an organized campaign by Shiite militants to drive Sunnis from the area and strengthen militia control of the capital's north.
Witnesses say scores of Sunni families have been fleeing the Hurriyah neighborhood in recent weeks, and Sunni organizations claim that the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army and police have done little to stop the violence.
Iraqi commanders deny the charge and say they are encouraging Sunnis to remain in Hurriyah and assuring them of their safety. Still, the authorities are clearly struggling to curb the violence.
Hurriyah was relatively calm Sunday, a day after about 600 Iraqi soldiers were sent there in response to clashes in which police said at least two people were killed and two others wounded.
But sectarian violence flared elsewhere in other mixed neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital.
One person was killed and six were wounded in Sunni-Shiite fighting Sunday morning in the Amil neighborhood of west Baghdad, police said. Nine people died when Sunni gunmen raided two Shiite homes late Saturday in west Baghdad's Jihad neighborhood, police added.
According to witnesses, the latest trouble in Hurriyah started Saturday when Shiite militiamen entered a Sunni enclave after Sunnis warned the few Shiites living there to leave or be killed.
Still, it appeared unlikely the calm would last long.
"We are in control now, but we fear clashes will break out again," the Iraqi army commander for west Baghdad told The Associated Press on Sunday.
But the commander refused to allow his name to be published, fearing reprisals by Shiite gunmen waging a desperate battle with U.S. and Iraqi forces for control of Baghdad's streets.
According to witnesses, the latest trouble in Hurriyah started Saturday when Shiite militiamen entered a Sunni enclave after Sunnis warned the few Shiites living there to leave or be killed.
Machine-gun fire reverberated through the streets Saturday and columns of black smoke rose into the sky.
Prowling low under cloudy skies, two U.S. jets flew wide circular patterns that took them over flashpoint neighborhoods including Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia blamed for most of the recent attacks against Sunnis.
The heightened security did little to assuage Sunni anger.
An official of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's biggest Sunni Arab political group, told reporters Sunday that an organized campaign was underway to force Sunnis out of Hurriyah, and he accused Iraq's Shiite-led government of doing little to stop it.
The official, Omar Abdul-Sattar, claimed that during the past five months, more than 300 Sunni families had been forced out of Hurriyah, more than 100 Sunnis killed and 200 wounded, and at least five Sunni mosques burned, along with houses and shops.
His figures could not be independently confirmed.
Abdul-Sattar said his party rejected sectarian violence of all kinds but accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government of protecting Shiite areas of the capital while ignoring the needs of mostly Sunni ones.
The government has denied those allegations.
The conflict in Hurriyah is symptomatic of Baghdad's rising sectarian tensions, fueled by extremists from both communities who have all but destroyed the spirit of tolerance that once prevailed between Sunnis and Shiites.
Last month in the same neighborhood, witnesses told The Associated Press that Shiite militiamen had dragged six Sunnis from the Mustafa mosque and set them on fire. Iraqi authorities denied the report, and the U.S. military said it had no information to substantiate the claim.
Both Sunnis and Shiites have suffered from sectarian attacks, which have spiraled out of control since the bombing last February of a Shiite shrine.
Some Shiite residents of Hurriyah, whose name means "freedom" in Arabic, say the attacks in their neighborhood are payback for Sunni assaults against Shiites in another western Baghdad neighborhood last year.
It is unclear why Hurriyah has been targeted. However, some Iraqis believe Shiite militants are trying to establish a Shiite pathway from Sadr City in the east to the Shiite areas in western Baghdad.
That would give the Shiites control of northern routes into Baghdad and isolate the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, a once-prosperous district where Saddam Hussein hid when the city fell to U.S. forces in April 2003.
Over the past 50 years, Hurriyah grew as a solidly middle-class community of modest, single-family homes and shops just west of the Tigris River, which flows through the heart of the capital.
Sunnis dominated the northern third of the neighborhood, with Shiites forming the majority in the southern third. The area in the middle was religiously mixed.
Just over a year ago, the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militiamen quietly entered the area and established an office in the main outdoor market. They told Shiites they would protect them from a Sunni militia called Omar's Army that had been killing and intimidating Shiites.
By late last year, Shiite militiamen were roaming the streets of Hurriyah, kidnapping, killing and threatening Sunnis. Handbills circulating this fall warned that 10 Sunnis would die for every Shiite killed.
In September, Shiite gunmen killed four Sunnis outside a mosque in Hurriyah. The next day, a Sunni extremist group detonated a bomb in Sadr City, killing 37 and stoking the latest round of retribution.
MyWay
I wonder if the MOI approved this news?
Witnesses say scores of Sunni families have been fleeing the Hurriyah neighborhood in recent weeks, and Sunni organizations claim that the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army and police have done little to stop the violence.
Iraqi commanders deny the charge and say they are encouraging Sunnis to remain in Hurriyah and assuring them of their safety. Still, the authorities are clearly struggling to curb the violence.
Hurriyah was relatively calm Sunday, a day after about 600 Iraqi soldiers were sent there in response to clashes in which police said at least two people were killed and two others wounded.
But sectarian violence flared elsewhere in other mixed neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital.
One person was killed and six were wounded in Sunni-Shiite fighting Sunday morning in the Amil neighborhood of west Baghdad, police said. Nine people died when Sunni gunmen raided two Shiite homes late Saturday in west Baghdad's Jihad neighborhood, police added.
According to witnesses, the latest trouble in Hurriyah started Saturday when Shiite militiamen entered a Sunni enclave after Sunnis warned the few Shiites living there to leave or be killed.
Still, it appeared unlikely the calm would last long.
"We are in control now, but we fear clashes will break out again," the Iraqi army commander for west Baghdad told The Associated Press on Sunday.
But the commander refused to allow his name to be published, fearing reprisals by Shiite gunmen waging a desperate battle with U.S. and Iraqi forces for control of Baghdad's streets.
According to witnesses, the latest trouble in Hurriyah started Saturday when Shiite militiamen entered a Sunni enclave after Sunnis warned the few Shiites living there to leave or be killed.
Machine-gun fire reverberated through the streets Saturday and columns of black smoke rose into the sky.
Prowling low under cloudy skies, two U.S. jets flew wide circular patterns that took them over flashpoint neighborhoods including Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia blamed for most of the recent attacks against Sunnis.
The heightened security did little to assuage Sunni anger.
An official of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's biggest Sunni Arab political group, told reporters Sunday that an organized campaign was underway to force Sunnis out of Hurriyah, and he accused Iraq's Shiite-led government of doing little to stop it.
The official, Omar Abdul-Sattar, claimed that during the past five months, more than 300 Sunni families had been forced out of Hurriyah, more than 100 Sunnis killed and 200 wounded, and at least five Sunni mosques burned, along with houses and shops.
His figures could not be independently confirmed.
Abdul-Sattar said his party rejected sectarian violence of all kinds but accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government of protecting Shiite areas of the capital while ignoring the needs of mostly Sunni ones.
The government has denied those allegations.
The conflict in Hurriyah is symptomatic of Baghdad's rising sectarian tensions, fueled by extremists from both communities who have all but destroyed the spirit of tolerance that once prevailed between Sunnis and Shiites.
Last month in the same neighborhood, witnesses told The Associated Press that Shiite militiamen had dragged six Sunnis from the Mustafa mosque and set them on fire. Iraqi authorities denied the report, and the U.S. military said it had no information to substantiate the claim.
Both Sunnis and Shiites have suffered from sectarian attacks, which have spiraled out of control since the bombing last February of a Shiite shrine.
Some Shiite residents of Hurriyah, whose name means "freedom" in Arabic, say the attacks in their neighborhood are payback for Sunni assaults against Shiites in another western Baghdad neighborhood last year.
It is unclear why Hurriyah has been targeted. However, some Iraqis believe Shiite militants are trying to establish a Shiite pathway from Sadr City in the east to the Shiite areas in western Baghdad.
That would give the Shiites control of northern routes into Baghdad and isolate the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, a once-prosperous district where Saddam Hussein hid when the city fell to U.S. forces in April 2003.
Over the past 50 years, Hurriyah grew as a solidly middle-class community of modest, single-family homes and shops just west of the Tigris River, which flows through the heart of the capital.
Sunnis dominated the northern third of the neighborhood, with Shiites forming the majority in the southern third. The area in the middle was religiously mixed.
Just over a year ago, the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militiamen quietly entered the area and established an office in the main outdoor market. They told Shiites they would protect them from a Sunni militia called Omar's Army that had been killing and intimidating Shiites.
By late last year, Shiite militiamen were roaming the streets of Hurriyah, kidnapping, killing and threatening Sunnis. Handbills circulating this fall warned that 10 Sunnis would die for every Shiite killed.
In September, Shiite gunmen killed four Sunnis outside a mosque in Hurriyah. The next day, a Sunni extremist group detonated a bomb in Sadr City, killing 37 and stoking the latest round of retribution.
MyWay
I wonder if the MOI approved this news?
posted by madtom at 11:20 PM
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