Massacre in Baghdad revives fears of civil war

At least 40 people, apparently all Sunnis, were killed on July 9 by Shia militants on a rampage in a Baghdad suburb–one of the capital's most deadly sectarian pogroms–that revived fears of civil war. Witnesses said gunmen, some masked, set up roadblocks and stopped motorists in the mainly Sunni suburb of Jihad, near the Baghdad airport, demanding to see identity cards. Those with Sunni names were shot dead; Shias were released. The slaughter lasted several hours, according to Alaa Makki, a spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic party, one of the main Sunni parties, who blamed the Mahdi army, the Shia militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr. "There is a lot of evidence it was done by the Mahdi army." he said. Sadr, whose aides denied Mahdi army involvement, responded last night by calling for calm and reconciliation between Shias and Sunnis "for the sake of Iraq's independence and stability." But as evening fell, another 17 people were killed, this time Shias cut down by two car bombs exploding near a Shia mosque in northern Baghdad. Sectarian attacks have plagued Baghdad and other cities with mixed populations since the bombing in March in Samarra of a shrine sacred to Shias. But the massacre stood out from previous incidents because of its scale and the insouciance of the killers. Attacks took place in daylight and on several streets. The militia were also said to have gone into houses and detained people. In one case a family was murdered and the house was then set on fire. A police lieutenant, Maitham Abdul-Razzaq, said 37 bodies were taken to hospitals and police were searching for more victims reportedly dumped in the streets. Several houses were burning, other police sources said. Wissam Mohammad Hussein al-Ani, a 27-year-old Sunni calligrapher, told Associated Press reporters that three gunmen had stopped him as he was walking to a bus and asked him to show identification. They let him go after he produced a fake ID with a Shia name but seized two young men standing nearby. The Shia owner of a supermarket said he had seen heavily armed men pull four people out of a car, blindfold them and force them to stand aside while they grabbed five others out of a minivan. "After 10 minutes, the gunmen took the nine people to a place a few meters away from the market and opened fire on them," Saad Jawad Kadhim al-Azzawi said. The killings in Jihad followed tit-for-tat attacks on Sunni and Shia places of worship on July 7 and July 8. Makki said these attacks were made by unknown "third parties who want to provoke violence and get Sunnis to leave the area." Since violence developed earlier this year the Mahdi army has set up armed vigilantes to guard Shia mosques and small prayer halls, known as husseiniyas. "Witnesses have been coming to our headquarters all day," Makki said. "They say they saw gunmen emerging from a husseiniya. Some were shouting 'The Mahdi army is coming.' They warned Sunnis to leave the area. Some witnesses recognized well-known local Sadrists among the gunmen." Makki accused the police of standing by and watching the killing. The Baghdad police are largely made up of Shias, and groups within them are loyal to another militia known as the Badr brigades. Police commandos have been involved in running secret prisons and death squads, according to US officials. The US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been urging the new interior minister to purge the police of militia loyalists. The deputy prime minister, Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie, a Sunni, called the attack "a real and ugly massacre" and blamed Iraqi security forces. "There are officers who, instead of being in charge, should be referred to judicial authorities," al-Zubaie told Aljazeera TV. "Jihad is witnessing a catastrophic crime." Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, a senior official of the Sadrist movement, denied the Mahdi army was involved. He said the attackers put on black uniforms, which are often worn by Sadrists, to provoke sectarian tension. Tens of thousands of Sunnis and Shias have fled in recent weeks in Baghdad and other towns near the capital to areas where people of their sect are in a decisive majority. Most of southern Iraq is Shia, while the West is largely Sunni. While most refugees have had time to pack cases and even sell their homes in a slow-motion sectarian version of "ethnic cleansing," what happened in Jihad resembled a pogrom. Houses were set on fire, others were raided, and people were murdered simply because of their sectarian identity. Almost all mosques in Baghdad are guarded by sectarian gunmen. Makeshift barricades have appeared in suburbs, manned by vigilantes on a pattern last seen in the chaotic days after the fall of Saddam Hussein. A few miles away from Jihad, staff for the Reuters news agency in the district of Shula, a mainly Shia island in Sunni west Baghdad, said Mahdi militia were blocking streets with burning tires and telling residents to stay indoors, apparently fearing reprisal attacks.