Word: sunni
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Eighteen months after the U.S. troop surge aimed at creating the security necessary for Iraqis to resolve their political conflicts, those political conflicts are threatening to become even more complicated. Besides the Arab-Kurd and Sunni-Shi'ite divides, there has long been a struggle among rival political parties for supremacy among the Shi'ites. Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently called for amendments to Iraq's constitution to strengthen the central government's power at the expense of the country's 18 provinces. This week, Maliki's rivals in the southern Shi'ite bastion of Basra submitted...
...country's fragile security is also being tested by the increasingly frayed relationship and mutual suspicions harbored by the anti-insurgent, largely Sunni Sons of Iraq (SOI) groups and the predominantly Shi'ite government. The U.S. military transferred control of the SOIs to the central government in October. The government has been slow to fulfill its pledge to incorporate 20% of Baghdad's 54,000 SOIs into the armed forces, further frustrating anti-insurgent leaders who want more of their men given security jobs. At the same time, domestic politicking is set to intensify ahead of provincial polls slated...
...aligned military muscle and the prize being control over power and resources. As a result, elections tend to exacerbate rather than resolve tensions, and next year's races will likely see sharp political (and occasionally even military) battles between rival Shi'ite parties in the south and Baghdad; between Sunni and Shi'ite blocs in some parts north of Baghdad, such as Diyala province, as well as between the government (including the Sunni parties that have participated in it, until now) and the U.S.-backed Sunni Awakening movement of former insurgents; and between Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans in the northern...
There were conflicting reports about the nature and number of attacks in Kasra, which is part of the mixed Sunni and Shi'ite district of Khadamiya. The district's police chief issued a statement saying that there were twin car bombs. The Interior Ministry had a different view. In the first blast, the ministry said a car bomb planted in or near a mini-bus ferrying schoolgirls exploded. It was rapidly followed by a suicide bombing targeting onlookers rushing to help, according to an Interior Ministry official. The estimates numbered the dead from 25 to 31, with some 70 people...
...fighters, but its planned 32 squadrons won't be fully up and flying until 2015. The former insurgents who joined the "Awakening" movement or neighborhood watch programs are being partially integrated into the Iraqi security forces, but this remains a point of tension amid continuing mutual mistrust between these Sunni groups and the Shi'ite-dominated government. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, meanwhile, continues to find sanctuary in and around the northern city of Mosul...