Baghdad: Where no one is safe

at least they are free from a bad, bad man. :sarcasm:

Can we call it a civil war yet? :(

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi capital is seething with confusion.

Murder, assassination and kidnapping are the words of the day. Blast walls rule all. Security is the growth industry in a city ravaged by bloodshed.

From the rooftop of CNN's bureau, tracer fire rises over Baghdad's Sadr City on a nightly basis. More than 2 million people live in the poor neighborhood, which is run by militia loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

His followers are well-armed and as loyal as they come. These are the men who control the streets; they decide who comes and who goes through this section of the city. They answer only to the cleric, not the Iraqi security forces or American troops.

<snip>

About 30,000 people are fleeing fighting across Iraq, including thousands of families in Baghdad alone. Neighborhoods all across the country, like Sadr City, are shutting down at night. Trees are pulled across roads -- signs that people are taking care of their own security.




An Iraqi Shiite girl peers out of her tent set up in a newly erected refugee camp sponsored by the movement of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in Baghdad. Amid rising sectarian tensions in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods many Shiite families find themselves abandoning their homes in fear of violence.(AFP/Ahmad al-Rubaye)

Freedom is on the march! We've given the Iraqi people the right to keep and bear arms! Mission accomplished!

:sarcasm:

Seriously, I wonder if we could call it an uncivil war - no civility apparent.