Monday, October 16, 2006
Sunnis flee from Balad
Security
Sunni Muslims were fleeing across the Tigris River on Monday, trying to escape a four-day rampage of sectarian fighting in their Shiite-dominated home city north of Baghdad. At least 91 people have died, all but 17 of them Sunnis. Sunnis, a minority in the city of Balad, said militiamen had been going door to door, giving them two hours to clear out of their homes, and one police officer said the bodies of the city's Sunni minority lay unclaimed in the streets.
The government and its police and armed forces appeared unable or unwilling to stop the bloodshed in Balad and its environs that may set the standard for the building inter-communal conflict should it spread further and the pace hasten, which appeared likely. About 70 per cent of Balad's 80,000 people are Shiite, slightly higher than the nation as a whole. Shiite-Sunni fighting has raged increasingly out of control since a bombing in February destroyed one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in Samarra.
The government and its police and armed forces appeared unable or unwilling to stop the bloodshed in Balad and its environs that may set the standard for the building inter-communal conflict should it spread further and the pace hasten, which appeared likely. About 70 per cent of Balad's 80,000 people are Shiite, slightly higher than the nation as a whole. Shiite-Sunni fighting has raged increasingly out of control since a bombing in February destroyed one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in Samarra.
