Personnel from the Iraqi security forces detain suspected militants of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, during a raid operation in Jurf al-Sakhar, in this May 27, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed/Files
Special Report: Inside Iraq's 'Killing Zones' -- Reuters
(Reuters) - Shi'ite militias and Iraqi security forces, engaged in an all-or-nothing struggle with radical Sunni group Islamic State, are blasting the Sunni farmlands that encircle Baghdad with heavy weapons. Military officers call their target areas in the rural belt "killing zones."
"In these parts, there are no civilians," said Lieutenant Colonel Haider Mohammed Hatem, deputy commander of the armed forces around Abu Ghraib, just west of the capital. "Everyone in these killing zones we consider Islamic State."
The death zones now scar the more than 200 km-long (124 mile) Baghdad Belt, as it is commonly known. Since January, at least 83,000 people, the vast majority of them Sunnis, have abandoned their homes in the rural area around the capital, according to the International Rescue Committee, an aid group. The figure could be higher, but is impossible to confirm because of the poor security situation.
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My Comment: If this report is true .... and I suspect that it is .... there is no longer any hope for any Sunni - Shiite reconciliation in Iraq. This is a sectarian war to the finish.
5 comments:
WNU,
That line was crossed a while back, now it's who can take the most pounding and who can bring the most friends to the party.
I am the hopeful one James .... hopeful that reconciliation can somehow come about. But yes .... in this conflict the lines were crossed a long time ago .... too much bloodshed and hate .... this is a fight to the finish.
WNU,
It's a different millennia, but the battle of Karbala continues.
Sad thing is, there is only one way to win this sort of war, genocide, ethnic cleasing, co-option of a segment of the population,
But in the post WWII world, has never suceeded, when there is any significant outside support for the Minority, and porous borders.
All these "kill boxes" will do, is ensure the war lasts for another 50 years.
Sadly Jay you are right.
Case in point .... when the communists took over and created the Soviet Union, Muslims in the Caucasus and elsewhere were opposed. The conflict lasted for years and it ended only when Stalin assumed power and did what Stalin is now known for doing .... mass murder, genocide, deportations, camps, etc..
Flash forward to today .... the Shiite - Sunni conflict has a few hundred years of animosities and hatred to burn off.
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