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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (311969)	11/24/2006 2:19:02 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1572753

This article discusses the same events as the last article I posted to you but gives more detail. The reason I am posting it to you is so that you can tell us if the Shiites are using enough force. And if not, how much more forceful do they need to get so that the Sunnis give up and ask for peace. Looking forward to your response. Iraq Toll Rises; Shiite Militia Retaliates By EDWARD WONG Published: November 24, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 24 - Defying a government-imposed curfew, Shiite militiamen stormed Sunni mosques in central Iraq today, shot guards and burned down several buildings in apparent retaliation for a series of devastating car bombs that killed hundreds of people the previous day in a Shiite slum. As the death toll from those bombings rose above 200, gunmen drove through neighborhoods in Baghdad and the nearby provincial capital of Baquba, shooting at mosques with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades on the Muslim holy day, when many Iraqis attend a weekly sermon. From morning until afternoon, at least seven mosques were attacked in a single mixed neighborhood in the capital. Three were destroyed completely, and at least three guards were killed, an Interior Ministry official said. Iraqi security forces were either absent or unable to stop the gunmen. Residents blamed the attacks on the Mahdi Army, a powerful Shiite militia based in Sadr City, the area ravaged by the explosions on Thursday. “I live near Akbar al-Mustafa Mosque, which came under attack by gunmen around 7 this morning,” said a man who gave his name as Abu Ruqaiya and lives in Hurriya, the neighborhood where violence raged all day. “Around 3 in the afternoon, those gunmen bombed this mosque and destroyed part of it. They left only after American and Iraqi soldiers arrived.” The wave of revenge attacks came despite a traffic ban the Iraqi government had imposed across the capital starting Thursday evening, underscoring the ineffectiveness of the Iraqi security forces in tamping down on violence that is widening the Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide and pushing the country toward full-scale civil war. The assaults against Sunnis on Friday evoked the rampages by Shiite gunmen that took place in the hours after a revered Shiite shrine was bombed by insurgents last February in Samarra. American troops stepped up patrols across Baghdad, setting up checkpoints and rolling down mostly deserted avenues in armored Humvees. In the far north, a suicide car bomber and a suicide belt bomber detonated their explosives in crowded areas in the insurgent-rife city of Tal Afar, killing at least 20 people and injuring at least 42. The bloodletting over the 24-hour period amounted to one of the worst spasms of violence since the Americans toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. It comes before a meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki scheduled for Wednesday in Jordan. Both men face increasing pressure from their respective publics to come up with a successful strategy for stemming the growing carnage in Iraq, and both are navigating rising tensions between their two governments as they try to agree on a viable path forward. A powerful bloc in Parliament that is loyal to the firebrand Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr announced this afternoon that it would boycott the government if Mr. Maliki met with President Bush. The anti-American Mr. Sadr controls Sadr City and the Mahdi Army, and the attacks on Thursday appeared to have strengthened his political standing and emboldened him. As long as Sunni Arab extremists carry out attacks against his Shiites, Mr. Sadr can justify the existence of his militia and ignore entreaties by the Iraqi or American governments to disband it. The legislators met in the Sadr headquarters and angrily denounced the American military, saying the presence of the foreign troops was galvanizing the violence that roils Iraq daily. “The occupation forces should shoulder the full responsibility for these deeds, and we call for them to end their rule in Iraq by withdrawal or at least setting a timetable for withdrawal,” said Saleh al-Iqaili, a Sadr legislator. “If the security situation does not improve, as well as the issue of basic services, and if the prime minister does not retreat from his intent to meet the criminal Bush in Amman, we will suspend our membership in the Iraqi Parliament and the government.” Mr. Sadr, in a speech delivered at Friday sermons in the southern holy city of Kufa, did not mention the boycott threat, but he did repeat his usual demand of a timetable for withdrawal from the Americans. He also called on a militant Sunni cleric, Sheik Harith al-Dhari, to issue an edict forbidding the murder of Shiites and denouncing Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Blocs in Parliament, including Mr. Sadr’s, have threatened to walk out before. Mr. Maliki, a conservative Shiite, relies on Mr. Sadr for political support against Shiite rivals, and a withdrawal of Mr. Sadr’s legislators from the 275-member Parliament could upend the power balance among within the main Shiite political coalition. Mr. Sadr controls at least 30 seats in Parliament and three cabinet positions, including that of the health ministry, which was besieged for two hours on Thursday by Sunni Arab insurgents armed with mortars and assault rifles. Read more......... nytimes.com