The ongoing war in Iraq has assumed new dimensions with sectarian conflict taking a centrestage. In a bid to outwit each other for fanatical religious feeling and torment the already fragile U.S. sponsored Maliki Government in Iraq, the terrorist outfits are targeting religious shrines.
Early Friday, Shia extremists demolished a Sunni mosque at Basra, forcing the government to enforce an indefinite curfew in the port city. The act was in retaliation for Wednesday’s attack on famed Shiite shrine of Samarra. The shrine of Talha bin Obeid-Allah, the largest Sunni mosque in Basra was destroyed by using explosives.
Sectarian fight looks potent enough to engulf the entire Iraq. The acrimony between Kurds, Arabs, Shias and Sunnis are being well exploited by militant outfits and so called religious skippers. Baghdad, the capital was put under curfew from Wednesday 3 pm to 5 pm Sunday.
Since the U.S. military occupation of Iraq, hundred innocents are being killed everyday. More than 1.5lakh U.S. soldiers supported by their allies and Iraqi police look incompetent to ensure security for the people of Iraq. Their strategy to hold forte in Baghdad and provide opportunity to Iraqi leaders for reconciliation among different sectarian groups are yet to show dividend. The political turmoil is only rising.
The already weak political process gets severe jolts when devastating attacks like one on revered Askariya shrine in Samarra create public upheaval. One destruction leads to retaliatory rocket attacks by opposite sects. The result is shrines turning into rubble and political process reverting back to ground zero.
Sitting in the green zone of high security Baghdad, the political leaders are sipping American supplied cold drinks and awarding lucrative oil deals to American business houses, letting the common Iraqis to face the horror of death and destruction.
Via: Washingtonpost
