Author: Robert H. Reid
Publication: Forbes.com
Date: July 9, 2006
URL: http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2006/07/09/ap2866229.html
Masked Shiite gunmen rampaged through a tense
neighborhood of west Baghdad on Sunday, dragging Sunnis from their cars, picking
them out on the street and killing at least 41 in a dramatic escalation of
sectarian violence.
Hours later, two car bombs exploded near a
Shiite mosque in the city's north, killing 17 people and wounding 38 in what
appeared to be a reprisal attack, police said.
Black-clad Shiite militiamen manned checkpoints
on roads into most major Shiite neighborhoods to guard against revenge attacks,
as scattered clashes occurred across the Iraqi capital.
Sunni leaders expressed outrage over the killings,
and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, appealed for calm, warning that the
nation stood "in front of a dangerous precipice."
The brazen attack was likely to further enflame
Shiite-Sunni tensions and undermine public confidence in Iraq's new unity
government. It also raises new questions about the effectiveness of the Iraqi
police and army to curb sectarian violence in the capital.
The trouble started about 10 a.m. when several
carloads of gunmen drove into the Jihad area along the main road to Baghdad
International Airport, police and witnesses said. The gunmen stopped cars,
checked passengers' identification cards and shot dead those with Sunni names.
Masked gunmen wearing black clothes roamed
the streets, abducting Sunnis whose bodies were found later scattered throughout
the religiously mixed neighborhood, an Interior Ministry official said. He
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
U.S. and Iraqi forces sealed off the area,
and residents said American troops using loudspeakers announced a two-day
curfew. Black smoke from burning tires wafted through the streets.
Police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said 41 bodies
had been collected and taken to hospitals. Some Sunni clerics put the death
toll at more than 50 in Jihad, a once prosperous neighborhood of handsome
villas owned by officials of Saddam Hussein's security services.
Residents contacted by telephone told of gunmen
systematically rounding up and massacring Sunni men.
A Shiite shopkeeper said he saw heavily armed
men pull four people out of a car, blindfold them and force them to stand
to the side while they grabbed five others out of a minivan.
"After ten minutes, the gunmen took the
nine people to a place a few meters (yards) away from the market and opened
fire on them," Saad Jawad al-Azzawi said.
Wissam Mohammad al-Ani, a Sunni, said three
gunmen stopped him as he was talking toward a bus stop and demanded his identification.
They let him go after he produced a fake ID with a Shiite name, but they seized
two young men standing nearby.
Police and Shiite leaders speculated the rampage
was carried out in retaliation for a Saturday night car bombing at a Shiite
mosque that killed two people and wounded nine.
Clashes also broke out between gunmen and
Iraqi police in at least three neighborhoods across the capital, police and
residents said. Three Shiite militiamen were killed in fighting with security
forces in one of them, police said.
The spokesman for a Sunni clerical association,
Mohammed Beshar al-Faydhi, blamed the Jihad attack on the Mahdi Army militia,
led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Faydhi told Al-Jazeera television
that he had documents to prove his allegation.
Al-Sadr denied responsibility and called on
both Shiites and Sunnis to "join hands for the sake of Iraq's independence
and stability." He assured Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, leader of
the largest Sunni Arab party, that he would punish any of his militiamen if
they were involved.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite,
has promised to disband Shiite militias and other armed groups, which are
blamed for much of the sectarian violence. On Friday, Iraqi troops backed
by U.S. jets raided a Shiite militia stronghold in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood,
killing and wounding dozens of people.
But militias have flourished in large part
because of the inability of the police, the Iraqi army and coalition forces
to guarantee security. Many in the Shiite majority believe the militias are
their only protection against Sunni extremists such as al-Qaida in Iraq, responsible
for many car bombings and suicide attacks against Shiite civilians.
The violence is likely to complicate U.S.
and Iraqi efforts to encourage disaffected Sunnis to abandon the Sunni-dominated
insurgency and join mainstream politics so U.S. troops can begin to go home.
Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie, a Sunni,
described the Jihad attack as "a real and ugly massacre," and blamed
Iraqi security forces, which are widely believed to have been infiltrated
by Shiite militias.
"There are officers who instead of being
in charge should be questioned and referred to judicial authorities,"
al-Zubaie told Al-Jazeera TV. "Jihad is witnessing a catastrophic crime."
The prime minister's office quickly distanced
itself from al-Zubaie's comments, saying in a statement that they "do
not represent the government's point of view."
Sunni politician Alaa Maki also blamed Shiite
extremists, claiming they were out to wipe out the Sunni Arab minority.
"We demand the presidency, the prime
minister and the parliament stand against this agenda," Maki said. "The
situation is very serious. If it deteriorates, all of us will be losers."
Also Sunday, an American soldier died in a
"non-combat related incident," the U.S. command said without giving
further details.
Associated Press writers Kim Gamel, Bassem
Mroue, Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Bushra Juhi, Sameer N. Yacoub and Qais al-Bashir
contributed to this report.
