Signs of hope in that the Iraqis seem to be stepping up to the plate. This also shows how difficult it is to think you can negotiate with fanatical jihaddists. Sharon is very brave to be going this path. Let's not forget he faces his own fanatics, but they are nothing compared to those we see throughout the Islamic world.
Iraqi forces raid village in hostage crisis
Sunni militants still believed to be holding dozens of ShiitesThe Associated Press
Updated: 4:11 a.m. ET April 17, 2005BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi security forces raided a village in central Iraq on Sunday where Sunni militants were holding dozens of Shiite Muslims hostage and threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left the area, an Iraqi official said.
The security forces, which had surrounded Madain village, began raiding it Saturday to root out hostage-takers, National Security Minister Qassim Dawoud said. Early Sunday, Iraqi forces freed about 15 Shiite families, said Haidar Khayon, an official at the Defense Ministry in Baghdad. He said five hostage-takers were captured in a skirmish with light gunfire, but no casualties were reported.
Security forces continued to comb through the village of about 1,000 people, which is located 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, Khayon said.
Unprecedented
Other retaliatory kidnappings by Sunni and Shiite groups have occurred in the violent area, but the abductions appeared to be the first attempt by militants since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to forcibly evacuate a village or town along sectarian lines.
In Baghdad, lawmakers heading into Iraq’s newly launched parliament on Sunday morning said the Medain crisis was expected to be among the first topics of discussion. The legislators were also scheduled to begin talking about the formation of a new Iraq Cabinet.
“This area witnessed terrorist acts that cannot be believed. These terrorists and infidels tried to evict residents and kidnapped many people” in Madain, Jouwad al-Maliky, a member of parliament’s Shiite alliance, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Al-Maliky praised Iraqi security forces for racing to village, but he said the legislators must form a Cabinet quickly so it can handle the Madain crisis properly.
As the National Assembly session opened Sunday morning, Shiite legislator Shirwan Al-Waili said in a speech that the kidnappers must be stopped.
“There are people who want the Iraqi project to fail. What is going on in Madain is targeting the unity of the Iraqi people. Some kidnapped families could be killed if all Shiites don’t leave the village. We can’t just denounce this. We must intervene,” he said.
3 civilians killed in roadside blast
In northern Iraq, a roadside bomb targeting an American military convoy in Al-Barjiya village exploded Sunday, killing three civilians and injuring two others, said Col. Wathiq Ali of the Mosul police. No U.S. casualties were immediately reported.
On Saturday, a wave of suicide bombings and shootings left at least 20 people dead in Baghdad, the capital, and other parts of Iraq.
That violence included a bomb that tore through a crowded restaurant at lunchtime in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 17 Iraqis, including an American soldier.
Late Saturday, insurgents fired mortar rounds at a U.S. Marine base near Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. No American casualties were immediately reported.
Residents said dozens of armed fighters moved through the city after dark. They reported loud explosions when the militants tried to force their way into Camp Blue Diamond and said there were casualties among the attackers.
Assault on a village
The Sunni-Shiite conflict in Madain began Thursday when Sunni militants attacked the village mosque with explosives. Haitham Husseini, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country’s largest Shiite group, said the Madain mosque had been badly damaged. Husseini said about 100 masked militants drove through Madain, capturing Shiite youngsters and old men. He and government officials said 35 to 100 people were taken hostage.
A resident reached by telephone said the militants had returned early Saturday, shouting through loudspeakers that all Shiites must leave or the hostages would be killed. Later, the resident said, the town appeared calm and there was no sign of insurgents. Other residents said no hostages had been taken. The conflicting accounts could not be reconciled.
The insurgents repeatedly have sparred with Iraq’s security forces in Madain and its outlying districts, which are populated by a near-equal mix of Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
Sunnis make up about 20 percent of Iraq’s estimated 26 million population, but were dominant under Saddam Hussein. Since coalition forces drove him from power two years ago, the disempowered Sunnis are believed to form the backbone of the ongoing insurgency.
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