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Shiites Force Sunnis From Baghdad

Posted Sep 4, 07 3:09 PM CDT in US,  World 

(Newser) – Shiites have been clearing Baghdad of Sunnis at an accelerating rate, and those who remain live under siege. Curbing sectarian cleansing was a key goal of the US troop surge, but the forced migration has only intensified throughout the country, Newsweek reports: The ranks of internally displaced persons have doubled to 1.1 million this year.

With Iraqi police in hand, Shiites now dominate once-mixed Baghdad, having essentially won the civil war. Many blame the surge, which zeroed in first on Sunni insurgents in an arrangement with Shiites. Moqtada al-Sadr proclaims he’s taken the capital for the Shiites, and US forces have adopted a caretaker role toward Baghdad’s remaining minority as Sunnis cower behind concrete barricades.

Source Newsweek

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An Iraqi boy holds a gun's barrel during a protest of displaced Sunnis in Baghdad's al-Adil neighborhood in this Dec. 10, 2006 file photo. Some 150 Sunni families fled to Sunni dominated al-Adil from...   (Associated Press)
Iraqis hold machine guns during a protest by displaced Sunnis in Baghdad's al-Adil neighborhood in this Dec. 10, 2006 file photo. Some 150 Sunni families fled to Sunni dominated al-Adil from Hurriyah...   (Associated Press)
A U.S. Army soldier stands guard next to a poster of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the nominal head of the Mahdi Army militia, on March 13, 2007, in the Hurriyah neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq....   (Associated Press)
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Baghdad  • troop surge  • Muqtada al-Sadr  • Shiite  • Sunni  • sectarian violence  • Iraq Civil War


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