Word: sunni
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...fortified base that sits right on Baghdad's sectarian fault line. To the east is Shi'ite-majority Sadr City, the sprawling slum that is the stronghold of the Mahdi Army, the militia blamed for much of the sectarian killings in Baghdad; to the north is Adhamiya, the mostly Sunni neighborhood where insurgents and terrorists are known to frequently hide out. At night soldiers in Old MoD - the base is named after the former offices of the Iraqi ministry of defense - can hear gunfire from both neighborhoods. Also close at hand is powerful proof of the communal carnage: when...
...Since nonpartisan observers agree that the worst perpetrators of sectarian violence in Baghdad are Shi'ite militias, you'd expect the 600-man Iraqi brigade to be focused mostly on Sadr City, engaging the Mahdi Army on a daily basis. But while the brigade does police Sunni areas - setting up checkpoints, patrolling in vehicles and on foot, launching midnight raids - it is not nearly as aggressive in Sadr City, where an uneasy accommodation has been reached with the Mahdi Army. "There's some sensitivity when going into Sadr City for an offensive operation," says Lieut. Colonel Paul Finken...
...party. The head of the Badr Organization, Hadi al-Amiri, also heads the Iraqi parliament's defense and security committee. He portrays the militias as nothing more than neighborhood-watch groups that provide security to citizens, and says American and Iraqi troops "should concentrate all their energies on eliminating [Sunni] insurgents and terrorists...
...That kind of talk enrages Sunnis who face the brunt of the militias' murderous depredations. Adopting the same simplistic approach as their Shi'ite counterparts, Sunni politicians say Baghdad's security problems would disappear if only the U.S. would mount a major offensive operation in Sadr City. "They know the problem, the know the solution," says Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni. "So why aren't they doing something...
...Unable to beard the Shi'ite lion in its den, the U.S. and Iraqi commanders have reverted to the tactics they have periodically employed - with little effect - against Sunni insurgents and terrorists in Baghdad over the past three years: cordoning entire neighborhoods, intensive patrolling, house-to-house searches, surprise raids. But at best, these measures have brought only temporary relief. Militias and insurgents know to disappear when the U.S. military arrives. Past experience shows that once the soldiers move on, the violence returns. After three days of extended curfews and intensive patrolling in Amariyah, a mainly Sunni neighborhood that...