BAGHDAD: Nearly 50 people were killed in clashes yesterday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, sources said, on the third day of the most widespread violence in Iraq since US troops withdrew in December 2011.
More than 100 people have been killed in fighting since Tuesday, when troops stormed a Sunni protest camp, triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas in western and northern provinces.
Sunni Muslims have taken to the streets since December in protest at the perceived marginalisation of their sect since the US-led invasion overthrew Saddam Hussein and empowered majority Shias through the ballot box. Shia Prime Minister Nouri
Al Maliki’s coalition took the lead in eight of the 12 provinces that held provincial elections at the weekend, including the capital Baghdad, preliminary results showed yesterday.
The strong showing by Maliki’s State of Law alliance — based on 87 percent of the results — consolidates his position ahead of parliamentary elections due in 2014, when he has hinted it will be time to form a majority government.
Iraqi politics is deeply split along sectarian lines, with Maliki’s government deadlocked over how to share power among Shias, Sunni Muslims and ethnic Kurds, who run their own autonomous region in the north.
The delicate ethno-sectarian balance has come under growing strain from the civil war in neighbouring Syria, where mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are fighting to overthrow a leader backed by Shia Iran. Violence, including bomb attacks that have killed dozens of people at a time, has increased across Iraq this year. Provisional figures from rights group Iraq Body Count indicate about 1,365 people have been killed so far in 2013. Gunmen attacked Mosul on Wednesday night and took control of western parts of the city after using a mosque loudspeaker to rally Sunnis to join the battle. REUTERS
