Shiites Rout Sunni Families in Mixed Area of Baghdad (Remember: NOT Civil War)

[wellst0nev0ter]

BAGHDAD, Dec. 9 — Bands of armed Shiite militiamen stormed through a neighborhood in north-central Baghdad on Saturday, driving hundreds of Sunni Arabs from their homes in what a Sunni colonel in the Iraqi Army described as one of the most flagrant episodes of sectarian warfare yet unleashed in the capital.

The officer, Lt. Col. Abdullah Ramadan al-Jabouri, said that more than 100 Sunni families, many with very young children, had left the Hurriya neighborhood aboard a convoy of trucks and cars under cover of the nightly curfew. Government officials tried to urge the families to return by promising army protection, but could not persuade them.

<snip>

The fighting began around noon, when militiamen began rampaging through the only mixed district in Hurriya, a mostly Shiite neighborhood, and killed at least three Sunni Arabs. One family was shot as they left their home, with a 20-year-old man killed and his mother and younger brother wounded, according to an account given by the man’s father, who was at work as a security guard elsewhere at the time. The man said the three were hit by automatic rifle fire as they finished loading possessions into their car and prepared to drive to a safer area.

Colonel Jabouri said that skirmishes set off by the militia attacks continued for about five hours, until sunset. Meanwhile, a large convoy of Sunni Arabs waited in their vehicles outside the fortified Muhaimin mosque, waiting to drive to neighboring Sunni districts while local leaders negotiated with militiamen for safe passage.

<snip>

The role of American troops in the turmoil was unclear. The Sunni cleric, Sayed Muhammad, said appeals for assistance from the First Cavalry Division, its headquarters about three miles southwest of Hurriya, had gone unanswered. But Colonel Jabouri said Iraqi commanders had told the Americans there was no need for their help. A First Cavalry Division spokesman said American advisers with Iraqi troops in Hurriya had reported only one instance of sectarian trouble, when Iraqi troops assisted a Shiite family under threat from Sunnis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/world/middleeast/10baghdad.html?pagewanted=print

[wellst0nev0ter]

1. So This Is The Result Of OPERATION TOGETHER FORWARD

That open ethnic cleansing has become a reality in the city the military mission was supposed to protect? This is the freedom?!

And the worst part is the coward, ass-covering generals KNEW that it wasn't going to work, but they went along with it anyways.

[annabanana]

2. We have taken sides, haven't we?

Americans are the last to know, again.

[brokensymmetry]

3. Nope, not a civil war.

Rather, it is a distinctly UNcivil war.

Which, since it has worked well, will be a model
for future wars.

We've unleashed Hell....

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. Kick For The Morning

:kick:

[Sparkly]

5. More from today

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen attacked two Shiite homes in western Baghdad, killing 10 people, police said Sunday, while seven others died in clashes elsewhere in the capital.

(snip)

Omar Abdul-Sattar, a member of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Islamic Party, said Sunday that an organized effort was under way in Hurriyah to force Sunnis out, and he accused
Iraq's Shiite-led government of doing little to stop the violence.

Speaking at a news conference shown on Iraqi TV, Abdul-Sattar read a party statement claiming that during the past five months more than 300 Sunni families have been displaced from Hurriyah, more than 100 Sunnis killed and 200 wounded, and at least five Sunni mosques burned, along with houses and shops.

He said the party rejected sectarian violence of all kinds, but he accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government of protecting Shiite areas of the capital while ignoring the needs of mostly Sunni ones.

(That heartbreaking photo is on Yahoo News' front page right now, btw.)

My question relates to the passage you quoted in bold, about the role of US troops in providing security. Why does Abdul-Sattar accuse the government of failing to protect the Sunni areas? What is the role of the government vs. the US forces, and how does al-Maliki's power relate to that?

Edited for link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061210/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_clashes

[Kellyiswise]

6. To think, these people lived side by side and even inter-married during Saddam's

reign of terror. Just shows you how really ill-conceived the illegal invasion of Iraq was. But the world seems to have given the Americans a pass on this international crime. The world won't wake up until there is a big disaster in Afghanistan or Iraq. BTW, we are losing our asses right now in Afghanistan.