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Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro<br />
<strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Baszn Gzeti<br />
Sunnis losing ground in Baghdad<br />
At least 10 districts have become almost entirely Shiite<br />
By Sabrina Tavernise<br />
BAGHDAD: As the United States <strong>de</strong>bates<br />
what to do in Iraq, this country's<br />
Shiite majority is already moving toward<br />
its own solution.<br />
ln a broad power grab in Baghdad<br />
Shiite militias are pushing Sunnis out,<br />
forcing them to flee to an increasingly<br />
embattled territory in the western part<br />
of the city. At least 10 mixed neighborhoods<br />
have become almost entirely<br />
Shiite this year, say resi<strong>de</strong>nts, local officiaIs<br />
and U.S. and Iraqi military comman<strong>de</strong>rs.<br />
It is a fight for control of Baghdad<br />
that Sunni militants were once winning.<br />
For the first two years of the war,<br />
they forced Shiites out of ncighborhoods<br />
across the city, systematically<br />
killing bakers, barbers and trash collectors,<br />
jobs often held by Shiites. But<br />
in February, after the bombing of the<br />
Samarra mosque, Shiite militias struck<br />
back, pushing west from eastern<br />
one of the family's sons. "The Mahdi<br />
Army is protecting the area," he ad<strong>de</strong>d,<br />
referring to Sadr's militia.<br />
The family knew about the Sunnis,<br />
but had no sympathy. ln July they fled<br />
Baquba, a relentlessly violent town<br />
north of.Baghdad, after Sunni militants<br />
killed the father (a man in his 70s), kidnapped<br />
a brother and killed another<br />
brother as he was returning to their<br />
house to collect their belongings after<br />
the funeral.<br />
Around 400 Shiite families have fled<br />
Baquba to Na'ariya and nearby Baghdad<br />
Jedidah in the past few months, said<br />
Mustafa, citing local officiaIs in Sadr's<br />
office.<br />
"We are a ship that sank un<strong>de</strong>r the<br />
ocean," said his mother, Aziza, 46, sitily<br />
to the better protected Green ~lone<br />
inOctober.<br />
The <strong>de</strong>bate reaches to the heart of the<br />
, U.S. enterprise here.<br />
While Presi<strong>de</strong>nt George W. Bush is<br />
. consi<strong>de</strong>ring injecting more troops to<br />
help prevent an escalation in sectarian<br />
violence, Many in the Shiite-Ied government<br />
are saying the Amerieans should<br />
stay out of that fight. Shiite and Sunni<br />
militias are at war, they say, and protecting<br />
the Sunni si<strong>de</strong> will simply prolong<br />
it.<br />
"If you don't aIlow the minority to<br />
lose, you'Il carry on forever," said a senior<br />
Iraqi officiaI. "It would be painful<br />
at the beginning, but then you'Il have a<br />
historie <strong>de</strong>al that would aIlow the majority<br />
to rule."<br />
strongholds and redrawing the sectarian<br />
map of the capital.<br />
Shiites are seizing power broadly.<br />
The Shiite-dominated government is<br />
<strong>de</strong>manding more control over the Iraqi<br />
security forces, but militias have<br />
settled <strong>de</strong>eply within their ranks and<br />
the Sunni public is terrified at the prospect.<br />
There are plans for a new bridge that<br />
would isolate a violent Sunni area in<br />
the east and a proposaI for land<br />
handouts in towns around Baghdad<br />
that would bring Shiites into what are<br />
now Sunni strongholds.<br />
Sunni political control in Baghdad is<br />
aIl but nonexistent: Of the 51members<br />
of the Baghdad Provincial Council,<br />
whieh runs the city, just one is Sunni.<br />
ln Many ways, the changes are a natural<br />
<strong>de</strong>velopment<br />
Shiites, a majority of this nation's<br />
population, were locked out of the ruling<br />
elite un<strong>de</strong>r Saddam Hussein and<br />
now, after <strong>de</strong>ca<strong>de</strong>s of oppression, have The Amerieans do not trust the Iraqi<br />
security forces and are institutionaIly<br />
power that matches their numbers. unable to back one si<strong>de</strong>, the officiaI<br />
Sunni Arabs now say that an embol<strong>de</strong>ned<br />
militant fringe will conduct They appear to be leaning toward<br />
said.-<br />
broa<strong>de</strong>r killings without being stopped sending more troops. "The Americans<br />
by the government, or, some fear, with are very close to making a fatal strategie<br />
mistake."<br />
its help.<br />
That could, in turn, draw Sunni ln an army base in northern Baghdad,<br />
countries into the fight and lead to a an Iraqi Army general moved his hand<br />
protracted regional war, precisely the across a map of the capital. The city is<br />
outcome that the Americans MOStfear. dividing fast, he said, writing, "Sunni"<br />
The Shiite-dominated government and "Shiite" in graceful Arabie script<br />
publicly con<strong>de</strong>mns violence against across each neighborhood.<br />
Sunnis and says it is trying to stop the Neighborhoods in the east - MOst<br />
militias that carry it out. But the vulnerable to militias from Sadr City,<br />
cleansing continues unabated and Sunnis<br />
say the government is somehow poorest - have lost much of their<br />
the largest eastern distriet and one ofits<br />
complicit.<br />
minority Sunni populations since February.<br />
"They say they're against this, but on<br />
the ground they do nothing," said Mahmoud<br />
al-Mashhadani, the speaker of borhoods of Zayuna and Ghadier, very<br />
Even the solidly Middle class neigh-<br />
ParliaItlent. a Sunni,He moved his fam- mixed as little as six months ago, are<br />
starting to lose Sunnis.<br />
"This is the fault llne now," said the<br />
Iraqi officiaI, pointing to an area in<br />
western Baghdad near Mansour. "It's at<br />
the west of the west."<br />
The general, a Shiite who commands<br />
a briga<strong>de</strong> in western Baghdad, said he<br />
blamed Iraqi political lea<strong>de</strong>rs, both<br />
Sunni and Shiite, and the militias they<br />
commando<br />
"Now we face a new style of splitting<br />
the neighborhoods," he said. He asked<br />
that his name not be used because he<br />
could be killed for talking. "The politicians<br />
are doing this."<br />
ln the neighborhood of Na'ariya in<br />
southern Baghdad on Saturday, the local<br />
office of Moktada al-Sadr, the radieal<br />
Shiite clerie, was arranging for a<br />
Shiite refugee famil}' t? occupy a house<br />
Johan Spanner for<br />
e New York Times<br />
A Shiite refugee family that fled Baquba after Sunnis kiUed the father, a son and<br />
kidnapped another son. "We are a ship that sank un<strong>de</strong>r the ocean," said the mother.<br />
that had just recently been owned ~y a<br />
Sunni family who had fled the nelghborhood<br />
after a spate ofkillings.<br />
"They told us it's safe here, it's a<br />
Shiite neighborhood," said Mustafa,<br />
61