February 23, 2006
Sectarian Fury Turns Violent in Wake of Iraq Shrine Blast
By EDWARD WONG

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 23 — At least 138 Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs and including some clerics, were killed in central Iraq Wednesday and today in the maelstrom of sectarian violence that followed the insurgent bombing of one of the country's most sacred Shiite shrines, Iraqi officials said.

Seven American soldiers also died in attacks, the American military said today.

The most powerful Sunni Arab political group said today that it was withdrawing from talks with Shiite and Kurdish politicians to form a new government, accusing Shiite leaders of igniting anti-Sunni reprisals and the American military of standing idly by as the violence unfolded.

Across the country, thousands of furious Shiites, some clad in black and wailing with grief, flooded the streets in a second day of protests against the shrine attack. The demonstrations were mostly peaceful. Much of the violence that began on Wednesday had tapered off, though armed Shiites raided several Sunni mosques in Baghdad and set fire to at least two.

In the deadliest assault, 47 people returning from a protest were pulled off buses south of Baghdad on Wednesday and shot in the head, an Interior Ministry official said today. Three journalists from Al Arabiya, the Arab satellite network, were abducted and killed on Wednesday near the ravaged Askariya Shrine in Samarra, whose signature golden dome was reduced to rubble by insurgent-laid explosives on Wednesday morning.

Political and religious leaders, including Moktada al-Sadr, the firebrand Shiite cleric whose followers are believed to be largely responsible for the anti-Sunni violence, called for restraint, warning that Iraq could slip into a full-fledged civil war. The government set a curfew from 8 p.m. today to 4 p.m. Friday, to keep people from attending Friday prayers, and canceled leave for all soldiers and police officers, while American helicopters roared through the skies above Baghdad.

The poisonous atmosphere created by the bombing of the Askariya Shrine, which houses the tombs of two revered Shiite imams, and the retaliatory attacks that followed, in which Shiites assaulted dozens of Sunni mosques across the country, hung over every aspect of life today, from conversations between neighbors to frenzied meetings among Iraq's leaders. The American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, spent the day talking to politicians, trying to urge calm and keep the political process on track, despite the anger felt by both Sunnis and Shiites at each other and at the Americans.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadany, a senior official in the Iraqi Consensus Front, the main Sunni Arab political bloc, said in a telephone interview that the bloc had withdrawn from talks to form a four-year government with the main Shiite and Kurdish parties, accusing the Shiite-dominated transitional government of igniting the anti-Sunni violence. Mr. Mashhadany said his group would not re-engage until the government had brought to justice those responsible for attacking Sunni Arabs, though other Iraqi politicians said that the group was posturing and that it would return to the table soon.

"We're not ready to negotiate with the killers," Mr. Mashhadany said. "We think what happened yesterday was organized. It had all been organized the night before."

Mr. Mashhadany also accused the American military of standing aside as Shiites slaughtered Sunnis: "The security portfolio is in the hands of the Americans, but yesterday we didn't see any Humvees," he said. "We didn't see any military reaction."

The killings and assaults across Iraq amounted to the worst sectarian violence since the American invasion, and underscored the ease with which instability can spread throughout this country. American commanders have said that they hope to draw down a significant portion of the 130,000 American troops here by the end of this year, and that enough Iraqi soldiers and police officers could be trained by then to take over responsibility for security in many areas. Yet, Iraqi security forces did little to contain the violence on Wednesday and today, and in some cases reportedly took part in attacks on mosques.

The surge in violence also threatens to prolong or derail the formation of a new government, which was already mired in bitter negotiations before the shrine bombing.

Ambassador Khalilzad had been trying to persuade Sunni leaders to engage fully with the Shiites and Kurds. In doing so, he had denounced those Shiite leaders who have been accused of supporting government death squads. But the two days of sectarian attacks have pushed Sunni and Shiite politicians further away from the Americans, with the Sunni Arabs saying the Americans have failed to protect them and the hard-line Shiites blaming the Americans for trying to limit the Shiites' use of force against insurgents.

The shrine attack has likely strengthened the hand of conservative Shiite officials like Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a prominent cleric, allowing them to justify the use of militias that the Americans had been trying to disband.

Though Shiite leaders, including Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, condemned the anti-Sunni violence today, none of them chastised the Mahdi Army, Mr. Sadr's thousands-strong militia. Mr. Sadr issued a statement calling on the militia to protect holy sites in Samarra and elsewhere, and demanding that Americans set a timetable for withdrawal so Iraq can operate as a fully sovereign country, responsible for its own security.

"This situation is mostly because of the existence of the occupation," Mr. Sadr said in the statement. "We charge the occupation forces with all the responsibility."

In Shiite-dominated Iran, the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, blamed Israel and the Americans for the shrine bombing in a speech broadcast live on state television.

"These heinous acts are committed by a group of Zionists and occupiers that have failed," he said. "They have failed in the face of Islam's logic and justice."

The anti-American sentiments were echoed by many Sunnis and Shiites in Baghdad today. "I can tell you the main reason behind all our woes — it is America," said Abdul-Qader Ali, a clothing merchant in Adhamiya, a Sunni stronghold here. "Everything that is going on between Sunnis and Shiites, the troublemaker in the middle is America."

Many Iraqis, particularly Sunni Arabs, likened the rampages on Wednesday to the looting that took place in the days after Baghdad fell in April 2003, and asked in frustration why American troops had done nothing to halt the mayhem. The passivity of the Americans in the face of the violence has raised questions about whether the troops here would even have a chance of stopping a full-blown civil war.

American military officials said the Iraqi security forces were capable of restoring order, and that putting American troops in the lead would only undermine the Iraqi government.

"We are seeing a confident Iraqi government using capable security forces to calm the storm," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a spokesman for the American command, told reporters today.

Some officials at the Pentagon said the failure to prevent the shrine bombing and subsequent violence was the responsibility of the new Iraqi police units, which are considered intensely sectarian, having been recruited from the ranks of Shiite militias. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, has launched internal investigations into whether officers are running death squads, and, city by city, many police units are more loyal to local religious or political leaders than to the central government.

Reports of violence indicated that the bloodshed of the last two days had been vicious, even by the standards of this war.

The 47 Iraqis killed south of Baghdad were civilians who had been pulled off buses at a fake checkpoint in the farming area of Nahrawan, an Interior Ministry official said. The religious affiliation of the victims, who had been returning from a protest, was not immediately clear. Violence has been rampant in Nahrawan, and Sunni Arab militants and Sadr loyalists fought a pitched battle there last fall that left at least 21 dead.

Al Arabiya, the satellite network, said the journalists killed on the outskirts of Samarra on Wednesday were Atwar Bahjat, 30, a popular correspondent; Khalid Mahmoud al-Falahi, 39, a cameraman and Adnan Khairullah, 36, a sound engineer. Ms. Bahjat was standing in a crowd and reporting on the shrine attack when gunmen abducted her and her two colleagues. Their bodies were found this morning near their vehicle and equipment.

In Baquba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, a bomb exploded at 12:30 p.m. near an Iraqi Army patrol in a marketplace, killing at least 16 people, half of them soldiers, and injuring at least 20 others, the Interior Ministry official said.

The seven American troops killed Wednesday died in two separate roadside bombings — four near the insurgent stronghold of Hawija, north of Baghdad, and three near the Shiite-dominated town of Balad.

At least 57 of the bodies discovered late Wednesday and today were in Baghdad. Killed out of sectarian hatred, many of the victims appeared to be Sunni Arabs living in or near Shiite enclaves in the east of the city, the Interior Ministry official said. In the last two days, smoke from burning Sunni mosques could be seen curling into the sky from some of these neighborhoods, especially those near impoverished Sadr City, the Mahdi Army's stronghold. Meanwhile, some Shiites living in Sunni Arab neighborhoods have hastily assembled night watch groups, even appointing children as guards.

Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedy and Khalid al-Ansary contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article, and Thom Shanker from Washington.

Dang I didn't know we invaded Nigeria.

Bodies burned in open after Nigeria riots kill 146
Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:19 PM ET

By George Esiri

ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Christian youths burned the corpses of Muslims on Thursday on the streets of Onitsha in southeastern Nigeria, the city worst hit by religious riots that have killed at least 146 people across the country in five days.

Christian mobs, seeking revenge for the killings of Christians in the north, attacked Muslims with machetes, set fire to them, destroyed their houses and torched mosques in two days of violence in Onitsha, where 93 people died.

"We are very happy that this thing is happening so that the north will learn their lesson," said Anthony Umai, a motorcycle taxi rider, standing close to where Christian youths had piled up the corpses of 10 Muslims and were burning them.

Dozens more corpses had been thrown into the back of pick-up trucks by security services overnight, residents said.

Uncertainty over Nigeria's political future is aggravating regional, ethnic and religious rivalries in Africa's most populous nation and top oil exporter.

Elections are due next year and many Nigerians believe President Olusegun Obasanjo and some state governors will try to stay on after eight years in power. The prospect angers those who want their own ethnic or regional blocs to have their turn.

Militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta have waged a three-month campaign of attacks and kidnappings, which has cut exports and driven up world oil prices. One of their demands is greater control over their region and its resources.

There was no fighting in Onitsha on Thursday but Emeka Umeh, of human rights group the Civil Liberties Organization, called it "the peace of the graveyard".

Some charred corpses were still lying on the streets and hundreds of Muslim men, women and children fled the city crammed into open-top trucks for fear of more killings. Thousands more were hiding in army barracks and police stations.

Umeh said most of the bodies his group counted were Hausa, but some Ibo were killed too. The Hausa are the main ethnic group in northern Nigeria and most are Muslim, while the Ibo are dominant in the southeast and almost all are Christian.

FUNERALS

It is impossible to verify the exact number of deaths but Red Cross figures from all the different cities give a toll of 146. Local authorities decline to give death tolls.

In northern Maiduguri, where the Christian Association of Nigeria says 50 Christians were killed in a weekend riot that began as a protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, tensions were high during several Christian funeral masses.

The Red Cross said at least 21 people died in Maiduguri and 9,000 were driven from their homes.

A crowd of Christian youths broke away from the burial of one of the victims, a Catholic priest, and ran shouting through the streets before police dispersed them.

At the funeral of 13 children from two families who were burned in their houses, mourners wailed as police stood by.

News of the Maiduguri killings set off the bloodletting in Onitsha, and tit-for-tat violence spread on Wednesday to Enugu, another southeastern city, where seven people were killed.

Nigeria's 140 million people are divided about equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south, but sizeable religious minorities live in both regions.

Thousands of people have been killed in religious violence since the restoration of democracy in 1999. Killings in one part of the country often spark reprisals elsewhere.

The triggers for riots that killed at least at least 46 people, mostly Christians, in northern Maiduguri, Bauchi and Katsina, were different, but religious and secular leaders have linked them to political tensions.

In Bauchi, an alleged blasphemy started the trouble, while in Katsina it was a constitutional review that many see as an attempt to keep Obasanjo in power.

The constitution bars Obasanjo, a Christian from the southwest, from seeking a third term in 2007 and he says he will uphold the charter. But he has declined to comment on a powerful movement to amend the constitution to allow him to stay.

Maiduguri and Katsina are both hosting public hearings on constitutional reform this week which many Nigerians believe are geared toward furthering the so-called third term agenda.

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Abuja, Ibrahim Mshelizza in Maiduguri and Tume Ahemba in Lagos)

I used the word 'quagmire' early on to describe my prediction for Iraq because of the deep religious divides. I was really truly hoping that it would not come to pass, and I still do. Nobody wants to see our troops get maimed and killed for nothing. Al Qaeda had plans all along to stir up a civil conflict that we are essentially helpless against, and it looks like this may be the beginning. And yes there was progress, just because it doesn't appear on your TV doesn't mean it not happening. New infrastructure takes time.

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

I don't have a TV, and it's not my job to pay for "new infrastructure"...nor was it to destroy that infrastructure in the first place.

Since we can't turn back the clock, whats the best course of action at this point, if you had to make the decisions?

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

You didn't ask me, but....

That is, of course, very hard to answer. I'm afraid that anti-US sentiment is going to be so strong for some time, that any presence by us is going to put out troops in harm's way with a very poor ratio of harm suffered to progress made.

If we pull out, they'll almost certainly kill each other even faster than now. If we stay, the steady onslaught of IEDs and other violence will undermine much progress and contribute to the kind of instability that has a lot of the reconstruction stuck in the mud at present.

I don't think there is a good solution. Gonna be bloody and chaotic no matter what. All in all, I favor withdrawal. There's probably more Iraqis there now than the land can support. It's oil money that's let them populate themselves out on a limb. Could be a nasty culling coming up.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

We gambled...and lost, badly. Every gambler needs to know when to stop and cut the flow of losses. Now's as good a time as any to make that decision. Why drag it on, delaying the inevitable, just like in Vietnam.

we should it give it a couple of more years at least.. 10 is prob min to make the place go.. if we leave now, things will not get any better for anybody, that's for sure. it will save us some money but other damage will be even worse then the war itself. we really have no choice at this point and have to manage. maybe manage better?! things were improving somewhat but with shrub in charge, who knows.. he has the touch of death.

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72 W114/M130

RedMeat cartoon

this (http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060224/D8FVMB4G8.html) of course doesn't look like freedom too me but then what the heck do i know.

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72 W114/M130

RedMeat cartoon

I am concerned about what our 'allie' neighbors would say or do if we left now. I am not being facetious, but what would Kuwait, ect.....do if we pulled up stakes? Do they want us gone too? If we are going to leave, which of course at some point we will, we need to do it gradually, imo, and solidify whatever relationships we can over there first.

I don't see much possibility of pulling out. If you think the purpose of the invasion was to democratize Iraq, then the failure to acheive that end is reason to pull out. However, if the purpose of the invasion was to gain a military foothold in the region, then the failure of democracy is irrelevant to achieving that goal. The bloody Iraqi civil war is a messy little sideshow with embarrassing political implications, but no reason to back off the real purpose.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Your comment is revealing and truthful. Still, if the sideshow gets too bloody, public pressure will force a scale down, but not likely until at least the change of administration.

Do you think the continuation of the war in Iraq through the next presidential election will favor another R coming to office?

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...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Institutional Western sensibilities about death and killing are different than the institutional middle eastern.

We need to understand them better. Let them go at it!

We may learn a lesson or 2.

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1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
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1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD

Our sensibilities are based on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness. I don't want to change those values, especially the first item!

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1985 380SE Blue/Blue - 230,000 miles
2012 Subaru Forester 5-speed
2005 Toyota Sienna
2004 Chrysler Sebring convertible
1999 Toyota Tacoma

Iraq never once threatened those sensibilities. We ourselves are the biggest threat to those sensibilities.