BAGHDAD: Gun battles between militants and Iraqi forces killed more than 20 people yesterday after a raid on a Sunni Muslim protest camp a day before ignited the fiercest clashes since US troops left.
On Tuesday, troops stormed a camp where Sunni Muslims have protested for months against what they see as their marginalisation under the Shia-led government, a raid that prompted hardline Sunni tribal leaders to call for revolt.
More than 50 people were killed in ensuing clashes, which spread beyond the town of Hawija near Kirkuk, 170km north of Baghdad, to other areas, reviving worries of a return to widespread intercommunal violence.
Sporadic battles continued on Wednesday and hardline tribal leaders warned that protests could turn into open rebellion.
Militants briefly took over a police station and an army base and burned a small Shia mosque in Sulaiman Pek, 160km north of Baghdad, before army helicopters drove gunmen out of the town.
At least 18 were killed, including 10 gunmen and five soldiers, officials said.
An ambush on an army convoy near Tikrit with roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades killed three more soldiers.
A surge in Sunni militant unrest has accompanied growing turmoil among the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties that make up Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s power-sharing government.
A decade after the US-led invasion, sectarian wounds are still raw in Iraq, where just a few a years ago violence between Shi’ite militias and Sunni Islamist insurgents killed tens of thousands of people.
Iraq last descended into widespread sectarian bloodshed in 2006-2007 after Al Qaeda bombed the Shia Askari shrine in Samarra, triggering a cycle of retaliation.
Thousands of Sunnis have been protesting since December, venting frustrations building up since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the empowerment of Iraq’s Shia majority through the ballot box.
“We are staying restrained so far, but if government forces keep targeting us, no one can know what will happen in the future, and things could spin out of control,” said Abdul Aziz Al Faris, a tribal leader in Hawija.
The two main Shia militias, Asaib Al Haq and Kataeb Hizbullah, appear to have stayed out of the latest violence. But former fighters said they could take up arms again if needed.
Maliki has set up a committee headed by a senior Sunni leader to investigate the violence at the Hawija camp, which left 23 people dead. He has promised to punish any excessive use of force and provide for victims’ families.
The prime minister has offered some concessions to Sunni protesters, including proposed reforms to tough anti-terrorism laws, but most Sunni leaders say they will not be enough to appease the demonstrators.
The Shia premier may also seek to consolidate his position before 2014 parliamentary elections by taking a tough stance against hardline Sunni Islamists.
“What we are now likely to see in western Iraq is a deteriorating cycle of confrontation between the central government and protesters that will benefit extremist groups,” said Crispin Hawes at Eurasia Group.
Sunni community is deeply divided between moderates more keen to work within Maliki’s government and those who see resistance as the only way to confront Baghdad. “The Maliki government’s aggression against our people in Hawija has forced us to take our uprising on another course,” said Sheikh Qusai Al Zain, a protest leader in Anbar province.
Reuters
