Signs of return of sectarian violence in Iraq

Baghdad is on high alert. Checkpoints have extreme vigilance and people are back in their homes long before ten at night when the curfew comes into force. Fighting between the rebels and the army have come to Baquba, just 60 kilometers from the capital, but said yesterday the government forces have regained control. However, the death of 44 Sunnis who were detained in a police station in the city has raised the specter of sectarian war.

During the night of Monday to Tuesday, militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and other associated groups launched an attack on Baquba, capital of Diyala, a province of mixed population which already control several smaller localities. But yesterday afternoon, the head of police, General Jamil Kamal al Shimmari, announced that his men had managed to repel the attack.

“The whole city is under control, and there are groups of armed men on the streets,” said the general Yamil state television.

During the last week, the jihadists have succeeded to capture most of the province of Nineveh, including its capital, Mosul, which is Iraq’s second largest city; Tikrit, and counties in the provinces of Saladin, Diyala and Kirkuk. The offensive, which apparently preparing for months, has benefited from the complicity of the absolutely disenchanted with the government Sunni community; but above all, in the words of one European diplomat, that ” the enemy has been submitted to combat.”

However, from Sunday the authorities try to project the image of the security forces have regained the initiative and insist they are catching. That momentum may be overshadowed if it confirmed that 44 dead Sunnis in Baquba police station were summarily executed.

The EIIL said in a Twitter account that the detainees had been killed by police. The official version is that died during the attack in which insurgents also killed two policemen. However, The New York Times quotes a police source that “were murdered by agents before evacuating the station.” The paper also contains the testimony of a morgue employee who says the majority have gunshot wounds at close range.

Take time to know what really happened in that police station yesterday. If true, it would be a dangerous indicator of the return to sectarian killings that brought Iraq to the brink of war just eight years ago. In fact, a second incident sparked alarm both the Sunni community and human rights organizations when the bodies of four men between 25 and 30 years, with several gunshot wounds, was found in a neighborhood of eastern Baghdad under Shiite militiamen control.

Although the identity of the deceased is unknown and no one has claimed their bodies, the way forward is the ominous formula of extrajudicial killings with the Shiite militias of revenge attacks civil Sunni extremists in the mid of the last decade. It is a danger that has been exacerbated by the recent call to arms released by the authorities to counter the paralysis of the armed forces against the rebel advance.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the jihadists who have jeopardized his government. “I feel Saudi Arabia is responsible for the financial and moral support the terrorist groups receive,” said a statement released by his office. The day before, Riad was irritated by asking the formation of a national unity government in Iraq because, he said, Al Maliki has led the country to limit its policy of exclusion of the Sunnis.

Al Maliki, who is the head of government since 2006, trying to get a third term after his party got out the vote in elections last April. However, after the events of the last week, many analysts question whether it is the right person.

Increased violence led to embassies and foreign companies to rethink their field presence. Iraq ‘s largest refinery, the Baiji, closed yesterday due to the evacuation of their foreign employees. Having managed to repel the advancing militia EIIL only local workers and the police force were guarding the facility.

Following the downsizing of the U.S. legations and the UN, Turkey announced that evacuated its consulate in Basra. The Turkish mission in Mosul was attacked by EIIL when it took the city a week ago. Since then he has kidnapped diplomats, their families (including children) and the police protecting them. In addition, thirty Turkish truck drivers are held by that group a few days before.

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Posted by Nadeem Bajwa on Jun 19 2014. Filed under Middle East. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.