Militants carve up Baghdad into sectarian war zone

[ECH1969]

Baghdad, a city known for centuries as the "City of Peace", is rapidly disintegrating into ruthless battle-zones carved out by sectarian militants vying for control of Iraq's capital.

Although government forces maintain a presence in all areas, death squads from Sunni and Shi'ite sects are widely believed to be carrying out assassinations and "executions" of people in rival communities, forcing thousands of others from their homes.

The city of seven million rarely has a break from the carnage of daily bombings. Dozens of bodies are recovered from its streets, many tortured and bound before being shot.

On Tuesday, dozens of gunmen dragged as many as 100 men out of an office run by the Higher Education Ministry. The minister said they were taken to a Shi'ite area where a powerful militia, accused by Sunnis of targeting them, is based.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=KHA527238&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-6

[Kagemusha]

1. Hey, not like they weren't warned.

People didn't wanna believe this stage was coming but lo and behold, here we are, just as predicted based on Beirut's experience.

[grizmaster]

2. Biden's partition plan is looking better and better

Should be interesting to see which of the dem plans that have already been offered the Baker commission will try to give the GOP credit for.

[radfringe]

3. is it a civil war yet?

do we have a plan which doesn't involve putting happy face stickers on the paper work?

[Dhalgren]

4. And the Iraq Study Groups say.....? Hello? Study Group? Hello?

I cannot wait to hear what these "wise" men have to say. What kind of BFEE magic will they pull from their hats, so as to save W from himself? And make no mistake about it, this "Study Group" is there to try and save W, not anything else. They could give a sweet, steaming damn about Iraq, or the US troops, or the Middle East, or anything else. Their job is to pull Junior's nuts out of the vise and that's it...