Monday, December 11, 2006
Sunnis attacked again in mixed area of Baghdad
Security, Politics
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. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
