some thoughs

 
well when i m reading that article , i m feeling that the US want to break Iraq in 3 parts based on secterian zoning

making me remembering of kissinger plan in the 70

Baghdad blast brings sectarian divide to surface
Sunni, Shiite Residents of Hurriyet witness First attack since Saddam Hussein’s ouster
2 rocket-propelled grenades kill 3, destroy long-standing communal unity between sects that had co-existed for years

Nicholas Blanford
Special to The Daily Star

BAGHDAD: The Sunni and Shiite residents of western Baghdad’s Hurriyeh neighborhood have lived in harmony for years. Their families intermarry. They attend each other’s weddings and funerals and pray in each others’ mosques. It is also a calm area, with not a single attack reported against the coalition forces since April.
That co-existence, however, came to an abrupt end early Tuesday morning. An explosion beside a Sunni mosque killed three people and ripped to shreds the brittle fabric of communal unity that bound both Shiites and Sunnis, exposing the deep-rooted sectarian divisions within Iraqi society.
The Sunnis blame the explosion on militant Shiites belonging to the Al-Dawa Party and the Badr Brigades, the military wing of the Iran-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The Shiites accuse Sunnis from the extremist Wahhabi sect of stirring up tensions between the two communities.
As the three victims were buried the next day, armed Sunni and Shiite gunmen took to the streets vowing revenge, while clerics pleaded for calm and grim-faced US troops, backed by Apache helicopter gunships, patrolled the neighborhood.
As Iraq struggles to replace decades of Baathist dictatorship with a new mechanism of rule that will accommodate the country’s myriad sects, faiths and ethnicities, the ominous specter of sectarian violence looms large.
“It is tragic that God’s house should be attacked,” said Sheikh Farouk al-Batawy, the imam of the Ahbab al-Mustafa Mosque. “Even nonbelievers condemn something like this.”
Claims differ over the circumstances of the deadly explosion at 6.45am Tuesday in the courtyard of the Ahbab al-Mustafa Mosque. The regular Sunni worshippers at the mosque say that two rocket-propelled grenades were fired from the roof of a neighboring school, no more than 20 meters away, killing three men standing outside the building.
“I knew all three of them. They prayed regularly at the mosque,” said Batawy, speaking in a dimly lit room beside the mosque filled with somber-looking Sunni clerics and supporters.
He says the explosion was the latest in a number of attacks against Sunnis in Baghdad.
“The relations with the Shiites have always been very good here. Only the Shiites who have come from outside Iraq want to cause problems, he said, referring to the Iran-trained Badr Brigades.
But local Shiite residents have a very different take on what happened.
“The people who died were Wahhabis and they were putting a bomb in the car,” said Abu Hussein, declining to give his full name. “No one fired RPGs at them. We had nothing to do with what happened.”
The Shiites say there have always been some Wahhabis living in the area, but they have grown more assertive since Saddam Hussein’s downfall in April.
The Shiite view that Islamic militants accidentally blew themselves up has some credence, says Lieutenant Colonel Frank Sherman, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 13th Armor Brigade, which operates in the Hurriyeh district.
“The explosion was not caused by a fired RPG,” he said. “The school roof is too close, the rockets would not have had time to arm.”
Nonetheless, RPG fragments were recovered by the police, he adds, suggesting that it may have been a bomb of jerry-rigged RPG rounds of the type regularly used by militants against coalition troops.
Yet the truth behind the explosion mattered little, with Sunnis and Shiites content to believe the worst of each other.
As residents prepared to bury the victims of the blast, dozens of Sunni gunmen entered the neighborhood, clutching AK-47 rifles, their heads swathed in red-and-white scarves and wearing identity badges proclaiming them to belong to the Khaled ibn Walid Forces.
A group of them stormed a husseiniyeh, a Shiite prayer house and meeting place, forcing several families living on an upper floor out at gun point.
A crowd of around 3,000 Sunni mourners surged around the husseiniyeh as the outdoor funeral service began, armed guards standing on the roof and surrounding walls.
“Condemn the attack but don’t blame people at random and don’t suspect the Shiite clerics,” Sheikh Ahmed Dabboush, a prominent Sunni cleric, tells the crowd using a loudspeaker. “Some Shiite movements are accused of these acts and they must be stopped. But we must continue living with the Shiites and we must continue the harmony of Shiites and Sunnis and Arabs and Kurds.” As Dabboush spoke, two Apache helicopter gunships arrived and circled slowly overhead a few hundred meters from the ground, the clatter of the rotor blades all but drowning out his words.
“Lower your guns. Please don’t shoot into the air,” Dabboush implored the gunmen.
The throng of mourners file back onto the street, carrying aloft the three coffins draped in rugs and secured with rope.
Once the crowd disappeared, the local Shiites returned to the husseiniyeh as American troops fanned out in the streets.
“It’s been quiet here since April. We have had no problems at all … so it was a shock to me when I heard about the explosion,” Sherman said, adding that his soldiers will remain in the area for the next three or four days until tempers have cooled.
“We are talking with the local leaders. I don’t think it will develop. No one wants problems here,” he said.
But the Shiites inspecting the damaged husseiniyeh are furious, some calling for revenge.
“Look what they have done,” said one, pointing at a torn picture of Imam Ali, a cousin of the Prophet Mohammed and revered by Shiites.
The loudspeaker system attached to the minaret lies smashed, a black-painted throne lies splintered from repeated kicks and pictures of Shiite imams lie in shreds beside the front door.
Shiite gunmen have taken up position outside the Al-Allawi Mosque a few streets away. One of the gunmen argues with a furious Shiite who demands revenge for the damage to the Husseiniyeh.
“Any attack on a Shiite building is an attack on all Shiites,” said Yehya Abu Huda. “We don’t want trouble. This is a Shiite and Sunni area. But we must have an apology to achieve a peaceful end.” Sheikh Mehdi al-Mohammedawy, a senior Shiite cleric in the area, said he visited the Ahbab al-Mustafa Mosque after the explosion to pay condolences.
“They refused to let me in and told me to leave,” he said. “I told them I condemn the incident but they replied with cruel words. I forgive them for their actions because they were emotional.”
Mohammedawy, a soft-spoken cleric with a white turban and brown cloak, said he has told his followers to remain calm and not to resort to violence.
“I am facing a lot of pressure to let my people fight them,” he said. “But I reject this and call instead for a peaceful solution because otherwise the results will be seen in the graveyards and the hospitals.”
He says he hopes to meet with his Sunni counterparts soon and restore peace.

posted by francois at samedi, décembre 13, 2003