Monday, April 16, 2007
Destruction of bridges seen as plot to split Baghdad
Security
(Al Jazeera) - After the Sarafiya bridge was destroyed in a suicide attack, Iraqis fear that the recent targeting of bridges in Baghdad is a plot to divide the city. On Saturday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at a ramp leading to the Jadriyah bridge, causing no structural damage. It is unclear if the two attacks were related; but the US military said on Sunday that fighters appeared to be changing tactics.
"The constant strategy of the terrorists is to look at ways to divide and create terror and make life difficult for the people of Iraq," Mark Fox, a spokesman for the US military in Iraq told reporters, saying military planners were studying the two incidents "carefully". "The terrorists are planning to split Karkh from Rusafa," said a senior Shia minister, using Baghdad's ancient names for the west bank (Karkh) and the east bank (Rusafa). "This has been the plan by terrorists and their political allies all along to try and drive Shia out of Karkh so they can split Baghdad in half."
On the other side of the divide, Mahmoud Mashhadani, parliament speaker and an outspoken Sunni politician, called the destruction of the Sarafiya bridge as a "conspiracy to isolate the two halves of Baghdad." Sunnis now mainly live on the west side of the river and Shia on the east.
(Al Jazeera) - After the Sarafiya bridge was destroyed in a suicide attack, Iraqis fear that the recent targeting of bridges in Baghdad is a plot to divide the city. On Saturday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at a ramp leading to the Jadriyah bridge, causing no structural damage. It is unclear if the two attacks were related; but the US military said on Sunday that fighters appeared to be changing tactics.
"The constant strategy of the terrorists is to look at ways to divide and create terror and make life difficult for the people of Iraq," Mark Fox, a spokesman for the US military in Iraq told reporters, saying military planners were studying the two incidents "carefully". "The terrorists are planning to split Karkh from Rusafa," said a senior Shia minister, using Baghdad's ancient names for the west bank (Karkh) and the east bank (Rusafa). "This has been the plan by terrorists and their political allies all along to try and drive Shia out of Karkh so they can split Baghdad in half."
On the other side of the divide, Mahmoud Mashhadani, parliament speaker and an outspoken Sunni politician, called the destruction of the Sarafiya bridge as a "conspiracy to isolate the two halves of Baghdad." Sunnis now mainly live on the west side of the river and Shia on the east.
Look at the map links to see how Baghdad's sectarian make-up has changed drastically between 2003-2007.
Labels: Jadriyah bridge, Karkh, Rusafa, Sarafiya bridge
