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Sadrâs Militia Group Demolishes Local Sin City
A Shia militia group loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr has wiped out a village in central Iraq which refused to adhere to its puritanical creed, killing some inhabitants and forcing the rest to flee. Hundreds of militiamen from the Mahdiâs Army group besieged the town of Kawlia, 10km south of the city of Diwaniya, with mortars and smashed walls with sledgehammers three weeks ago, reducing to rubble the entire village famed for its dancers and prostitutes since the 1920s. ... Sayid Yahya Shubari, the 30-year-old local clerical commander of the Mahdiâs Army in Diwaniya, said his militia raided the village after receiving reports that pimps had kidnapped a 12-year-old girl. "It was a well of debauchery, drunkenness and mafia, and they were buying and selling girls," he said. He said Kawlia was flattened after the villagers shot an emissary he had sent to negotiate with them. Hassan Ali, a director at Diwaniyaâs civil defence department, said at least four people were killed and 15 wounded during six hours of night-time shelling. He said the attack was quelled after Spanish and Iraqi forces intervened. The townâs destruction has raised fears that the militia, which operates under the command of Mr Sadr, and is active in Baghdad and eight southern provinces, is not just operating above the law, but defining it. Mr Shubari says his Diwaniya office operates its own Sharia (Islamic law) courts, and uses its Sharia police to apply Islamic punishments. .... In Diwaniya, a town where women are all but absent on the streets, many younger residents and some policemen praised the Mahdiâs Army methods. "People would come from all over the south, and even Baghdad to dance with the gypsy girls," said Bassam al-Najafi, a Diwaniya restaurateur. "Women were leaving their husbands to work there. They are cleansing the town." Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-04-03 |
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