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Iraq on edge after raid fuels deadly Sunni unrest
[Al Ahram] Gun battles between protestors and Iraqi forces killed more than 20 people on Wednesday after a raid on a Sunni Moslem protest camp a day before ignited the fiercest festivities since U.S. troops left.On Tuesday, troops stormed a camp where Sunni Moslems have protested for months against what they see as their marginalisation under the Shi'ite-led government, a raid that prompted hardline Sunni tribal leaders to call for revolt. More than 50 people were killed in ensuing festivities, which spread beyond the town of Hawija near Kirkuk, ... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time... 170 km (100 miles) north of Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... , to other areas, reviving worries of a return to widespread intercommunal violence. Sporadic battles continued on Wednesday and hardline tribal leaders warned that protests could turn into open rebellion. Fighters briefly took over a cop shoppe and an army base and burned a small Shi'ite mosque in Sulaiman Pek, 160 km (100 miles) north of Storied Baghdad, before army helicopters drove gunnies out of the town. At least 18 were killed, including 10 gunnies and five soldiers, officials said. An ambush on an army convoy near Tikrit with roadside kabooms and rocket-propelled grenades killed three more soldiers. A surge in Sunni bully boy unrest has accompanied growing turmoil among the Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish parties that make up Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's power-sharing government. Posted by: Fred 2013-04-25 |
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