Having been busily building separation walls [2] between Shi'ite and Sunni districts of Baghdad for the past two years, the US is now building one around the southern quarter of the Shi'ite enclave of Sadr City—to keep out Mahdi Army militants, effectively separating Shi'ite from Shi'ite and turning the quarter into an armed camp, patrolled by tanks, Stryker vehicles and Apache attack helicopters. (NYT [3], April 18)
Having implemented similar strategies [4] in Sunni insurgent strongholds in Iraq's north, the US has recently been attempting a divide-and-rule ploy in the region, supporting Sunni "Awakening Councils" (sahwas) against Sunni insurgents. This strategy is now similarly reaping terror. On April 17, a suicide bomber struck a funeral for two brothers—killed the day before—who had joined the Awakening Council in Albu Mohammed, 90 miles north of Baghdad. The blast killed at least 50 mourners, largely sympathizers of the sahwas. On April 15 in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, a man walked into a restaurant, screamed "God is Great," and blew himself up, killing at least 10. On the same day, a car bomb in Baquba, capital of Diyala province, killed 50. (CSM [5], April 18)
See our last posts on Iraq [6], the sectarian cleansing [7] and the Sunni civil war [8].
