http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1747149.ece journey into the 'Taliban republic' where the militias rule unchallenged
By Patrick Cockburn in Diyala, north east Iraq
Published: 25 September 2006
Civil war is raging through the Iraqi countryside. Sunni insurgents have largely taken control of the province of Diyala, where local leaders believe the insurgents are close to establishing a "Taliban republic".
Officials in the strategically important province - composed of a mixture of Sunnis and Shias with a Kurdish minority - have no doubt about what is happening. Lt-Col Ahmed Ahmed Nuri Hassan, a weary-looking commander of the federal police, says: "Now there is an ethnic civil war and it is getting worse every day."
At the moment, the Sunni seem to be winning.