Word: shiing
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...city's 800 policemen, planned to grow to a force of 1,500, have also dealt effectively with sectarian tensions, says deputy police commander General Adnan al-Saadi. "When we first came here, al-Qaeda spread rumors that we were here to occupy the city, and that we are [Shi'ite] and were going to treat [the residents] badly. But then the people started to realize that we were dealing with them in a professional way," he said. Attacks in Samarra have dropped 95% over the past year, according to the U.S. military...
...Samarra - far more than there are policemen. "We work together in checkpoints and as fighters," says Mohammed. "There is no operation that isn't a joint operation." Their cooperation is key in an atmosphere where many Sunni residents still openly accuse the police force of being dominated by outsider Shi'ites. "The most significant aspect of the [Awakening] movement in Samarra is the fact that [its members] come from all of the major tribes in the city," says Major Margaret Kageleiry, a U.S. military spokesperson in northern Iraq...
...help promote reconciliation on a national scale, Samarra's security forces last month invited some 12,000 Shi'ites from Najaf and elsewhere to visit the shrine site. "After two months, it will be Ramadan, and we will invite many more," said Mohammed. "We are trying to re-build the relationship between both sides...
...Samarra's residents are quick to confirm that assessment, directly confronting the security forces with their frustration. On the market street near the shrine, civilians blame the Shi'ite-dominated government in Baghdad, and the police force it has sent to the city, for failing to provide jobs. "Unemployment is high. We apply for jobs with the police and they reject us," yelled one shopkeeper in a crowd of angry civilians - many of whom echoed his grievance. "How could you secure the town without the people of the town?" called another. "Each [commander] has his own people...
...water." But as residents reveal, it's a sizable obstacle. And given its centrality to both sectarian conflict and the prospects for reconciliation in Iraq, Samarra has a lot riding on its success. "What they should do is take away all these concrete barriers and let all the [Shi'ite] pilgrims come and go. To hell with sectarianism. They are welcome," said one shopkeeper - a reassuring voice in a cloud of tension on the street. The others, who had been yelling, nodded in agreement and for a moment, the mood quieted. But with few customers visiting his clothing store, which...