News & Politics - Shiites burn 6 Sunni worshippers alive

Lexis · 11-24-2006, 10:27 AM

After yesterday's horrific bloodbath, we get this fresh example of violence in Iraq.

Quote:

Militiamen grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and seven Sunni mosques came under attack as Shiites took revenge for the slaughter of at least 215 people in the Sadr City slum.
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A U.S. helicopter opened fire into the Shiite enclave after militiamen fired on it from the ground, residents said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

With the government trying to avert a civil war, two simultaneous bombings in Tal Afar, in northern
Iraq, killed at least 23 people. On Thursday, Sunni-Arab insurgents unleashed bombings and mortar attacks in Sadr City, the deadliest assault since the U.S.-led invasion.

Members of the Mahdi Army militia burned four mosques and several homes while killing 12 other Sunni residents in the once-mixed Hurriyah neighborhood until American forces arrived, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein. Gunmen loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr began taking over the neighborhood this summer and a majority of its Sunni residents already had fled.

The gunmen attacked the four mosques with rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and automatic rifles. Residents said the militiamen prevented them from entering the burned buildings to remove the dead, and they and Hussein said Shiite-dominated police and Iraqi military stood idly by.

Later Friday, militiamen raided al-Samarraie Sunni mosque in the el-Amel district and killed two guards, police 1st. Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq said. Two other Sunni mosques in west Baghad also were attacked, police said.

In Baghdad, followers of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned they would suspend their membership in parliament and the Cabinet if Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meets with
President Bush in Jordan next week, a member of parliament said. Bush and al-Maliki were scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday in Amman.

The al-Sadr bloc in parliament and government is the backbone of al-Maliki's political support, and its withdrawal, if only temporarily, would be a severe blow to the prime minister's already shaky hold on power.

Shiites burn 6 Sunni worshippers alive - Yahoo! News

The world "mess" doesn't really capture what's going in Iraq any more. Its far, far worse than that.

**sunnykerr** · 11-24-2006, 10:33 AM

Quote:

With the government trying to avert a civil war...

This isn't a civil war?

What exact is missing to make it a civil war?

ceilirose · 11-24-2006, 12:22 PM

I have to wonder what the defining moment will be when this is called a civil war? what has to happen?

chicah · 11-24-2006, 03:15 PM

ceilirose: USA probably has to pull out because right now they are supposed to be "in control" and they are at war in Iraq so I guess it's not a civil war. But what exactly is missing for it to be called so is hard to say.

USA go in, take over and expect no hostility, create chaos and civil war and then eventually get the hell out when they've realized they've screwed it all up.

Lexis · 11-26-2006, 09:33 AM

Quote:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Followers of the militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took over state-run television Saturday to denounce the Iraqi government, label Sunnis "terrorists" and issue what appeared to many viewers as a call to arms.

The two-hour broadcast from a community gathering in the heart of the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City included three members of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, who took questions from outraged residents demanding revenge for a series of car bombings that killed some 200 people Thursday.

With Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki relegated to the sidelines, brazen Sunni-Shiite attacks continue unchecked despite a 24-hour curfew over Baghdad. Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia now controls wide swaths of the capital, his politicians are the backbone of the Cabinet, and his followers deeply entrenched in the Iraqi security forces. Sectarian violence has spun so rapidly out of control since the Sadr City blasts, however, that it's not clear whether even al-Sadr has the authority - or the will - to stop the cycle of bloodshed.

"This is live and, God willing, everyone will hear me: We are not interested in sidewalks, water services or anything else. We want safety," an unidentified Sadr City resident said as the televised crowd cheered. "We want the officials. They say there is no sectarian war. No, it is sectarian war, and that's the truth."

Militia leaders told supporters Saturday to prepare for a fresh wave of incursions into Sunni neighborhoods that would begin as soon as the curfew ends Monday, according to Sadr City residents. Several members of the Mahdi Army boasted they were distributing police uniforms throughout Shiite neighborhoods to allow greater freedom of movement. The government announced it would partially lift the curfew Sunday to allow for pedestrian traffic.

In the Diyala province north of Baghdad, Sunni insurgents stormed into two Shiite homes, lined up 21 men and shot them to death in front of women and children, police there said. Later in the day, a Shiite television station showed footage of the victims' burials.

And in the western province of Anbar, a suicide bombing at a checkpoint in Fallujah killed a U.S. serviceman and three Iraqi civilians, according to a U.S. military statement. Another American and nine Iraqis were injured.

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 11/25/2006 | Al-Sadr loyalists take over Iraqi television station

ceilirose · 11-27-2006, 10:42 PM

There are several media sources in the States calling it a civil war. It's been that way for months now - the term will be common usage before long. As Lexis said it's beyond being a mess there - all the reports of school openings can't erase what's going on there now.

I don't think it's out of the question to see a "1975 Saigon evacuation" recreation there with the last helicopters shuttling people out of the Green Zone to safety. Except that someone who just returned from there last week told me that there aren't enough helicopters there to do that.

flagpolesitta43 · 11-27-2006, 11:08 PM

Everytime I see news out of Iraq it just gets worse. I was never for the war, but I honestly never saw it getting this bad, and there doesn't seem to be any solution that doesn't include losing many more lives.


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