Word: sunnis
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...Last month, the U.S. Army began constructing some 2.5 miles of concrete barriers around southern Ghazaliya. The area, a Sunni insurgent stronghold, is notorious for relentless attacks on American and Iraqi soldiers, and for the execution of civilians who cross the insurgency. Since the barriers went up - limiting movement in and out of the area to two checkpoints, one on the east and the other on the west side of the area - violence has declined dramatically...
...Rice called the meeting an "opportunity to signal strong support" for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, but many of Iraq's neighbors see the Maliki government as part of the problem. Although al-Maliki came to office through democratic elections and is supported by Washington, Arab governments in Sunni Muslim countries see the Shi'ite prime minister as an ally of Iran who is helping Tehran extend its influence in Iraq. "Al-Maliki is not representing all of Iraq's people," an Arab diplomat told TIME on the sidelines of the conference. "He is too Iranian. He's serving...
...conference as an opportunity to have their voices heard on the Iraq crisis. But apart from forgiving some loans dating from Saddam Hussein's rule, they have been reluctant to take further steps, such as giving strong political backing to al-Maliki's government, using their influence with Iraqi Sunni leaders to halt the insurgency and, in the case of Syria, to stem the flow of insurgents from Syria into Iraq...
...athists to join the insurgency. Condi said she was very frustrated by the situation, but nothing ever happened. Several months later, with a full-blown insurgency under way, an interagency group headed by Deputy National Security Advisor Bob Blackwill desperately looked for ways to reach out to dissident Sunni Arabs. We again raised the subject of rolling back the de-Ba'athification order. Doug Feith retorted that doing so would "undermine the entire moral justification...
...moves the U.S. government was making were driving a wedge between the various factions in Iraq. [Longtime US weapons inspector] Charles Duelfer was told by an Iraqi friend that, in the past, Iraqis were not accustomed to thinking of themselves primarily as Shia or Sunni. But the way we implemented democracy had led people to believe that they deserved a piece of the pie based on their membership in a certain group. So the whole dynamic was to pull away from the center. The decisions we made tended to fracture Iraq, not to bring it together...