On The Front Lines In Iraq's War Against The Islamic State

Iraq: On The Frontline With The Shia Fighters Taking The War To Isis -- The Guardian

Special report In the first of a two-part series on the forces ranged against Isis in Iraq, meet the controversial Shia militia keeping the Islamists from moving on Baghdad

The new Iraqi "border" is marked by a two-metre-high wall of earth. The berm, as it is known, cuts through farmland and orchards, separating the shrinking lands of the Iraqi state as it has existed for 95 years from the expanding territory of the new Islamic caliphate.

On the northern side, the black flags of Islamic State (Isis) shimmer in the afternoon haze. But on the Iraqi side it is not a national flag that flutters but a black Shia banner.

"This land is what separates good from evil," says a Shia fighter, pointing at the no man's land between the two forces. "Here you see the flag of Imam Hussein and there you see the black flags of Isis. This is the same history repeating itself," he says, referring to ancient Sunni-Shia enmities that played out on these plains centuries ago.

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My Comment: Sunnis fighting against Shiites .... after 1,300 years of animosity and warfare you would think that these two religious faiths would have come to some form of reconciliation to stop this continuous warfare. Sighhh ... apparently not.