Shiites flee reign of terror in mixed Iraqi city

Barrett808

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sat Sep-30-06 03:17 PM
Original message

Shiites flee reign of terror in mixed Iraqi city

Shiites flee reign of terror in mixed Iraqi city
by Ali Yussef

BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - As the death squads' grim threats began to mount against Shiite families in the Mafraq neighborhood of Baquba, north of Baghdad, fewer and fewer people attended their local prayer hall.

Soon, the only members of the embattled Shiite community to brave the narrow streets of this religiously-mixed quarter to come to worship were the caretaker and the muezzin who made the call to prayer.

Both men were eventually shot dead and then finally, four months ago, Sunni extremists planted a bomb in the mosque and blew it apart, ripping the heart out of the neighborhood and triggering a panicked exodus.

The destruction of Mafraq's shrine was a repetition in miniature of a more famous attack; February's demolition of the golden domed mosque in Samarra, a revered shrine among Iraq's Shiite population.

(more)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060930/wl_mideast_afp/iraqdiyalashiites

Printer Friendly | Permalink | | Top

TrogL

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sat Sep-30-06 03:20 PM
Response to Original message

1. So basically, we've got a 3-way civil war

Shites vs. Sunnis vs Kurds

Printer Friendly | Permalink | | Top

Igel

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sat Sep-30-06 04:26 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. That's far too simplistic.

Shi'ite vs Sunni
Sunni vs Kurd
To a small extent, Shi'ite vs Sunni
But those are just the conflicts between large-scale 'tribes'.

Within Shi'ite-dom, we have Fadlallah's group vs Sadr's group vs Hakim's group, the official army/police versus minor Shi'ite groups and Sunnis.

Within Sunni-dom, we have the often foreign AQ folks that many tribals don't like versus native secular Sunni groups, and a fair amount of tribal warfare that's non-religious in nature. And let's not forget the Ba'thists, which, in principle, cross sectarian lines, but which form a kind of tribe of their own.

Then there are, undoubtedly, criminal gangs in the mix, when they can be fairly stated to be non-political/religious in nature. Remember that Saddam emptied the prisons, and not all prisoners were political in nature; chaos also tends to bring out the gang-membership side of people, since they need a group to provide some sort of order to their lives. Self-selected tribes of convenience and profit.

What do you call a 15- or 18-way tribal conflict? Civil war?

Printer Friendly | Permalink | | Top

uppityperson

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sat Sep-30-06 03:21 PM
Response to Original message

2. k&r for the world.

Printer Friendly | Permalink | | Top

DU AdBot (1000+ posts)

Mon Apr 29th 2024, 04:49 PM
Response to Original message

Advertisements [?]

Top

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators

Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.