BAGHDAD - Sunni militants seized the border crossing between Iraq and Jordan late Sunday night as they consolidated control of Iraq's vast western region. The seizing of the crossing, known as Turabil, raised the specter of the insurgency's becoming a menace not just to Iraq and Syria, where they already control territory, but also to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
The advance by the militants followed their seizing of an important border crossing with Syria at Qaim, allowing them to move fighters and supplies almost unimpeded between the areas they control in Syria and Iraq. A third border crossing, Al Waleed, was also said to be in militant hands on the Iraqi side, though officials said the Syrian army still controlled the Syrian side of that crossing, indicating that at least for now, the militants could not cross freely there.
Related Coverage
The Iraqi government said it had abandoned the Qaim crossing as a 'tactical' decision as it concentrates its forces - Iraqi army units and Shiite militias - around Baghdad and in the Shiite heartland of Iraq.
Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad on Monday morning for talks with Iraqi leaders, urging them to form an inclusive government, as they face the grave threat from Sunni insurgents, many of them fighting under the banner of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS. In recent weeks the militants have gained control of large areas of northern and western Iraq, including Mosul, the country's second-largest city, as the government's forces were routed or melted away.
Key Sunni majority Shiite majority Christian majority Mixed areas
2003: Before the Invasion
Before the American invasion, Baghdad's major sectarian groups lived mostly side by side in mixed neighborhoods. The city's Shiite and Sunni populations were roughly equal, according to Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert.
2009: Violence Fuels Segregation
Sectarian violence exploded in 2006. Families living in areas where another sect was predominant were threatened with violence if they did not move. By 2009 Shiites were a majority, with Sunnis reduced to about 10 percent to 15 percent of the population.
* Kadhimiya, a historically Shiite neighborhood, is home to a sacred Shiite shrine.
* Adhamiya, a historically Sunni neighborhood, contains the Abu Hanifa Mosque, a Sunni landmark.
* The Green Zone became the heavily fortified center of American operations during the occupation.
* Sadr City was the center of the insurgent Mahdi Army, led by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
* Huriya was transformed in 2006 when the Mahdi Army pushed out hundreds of families in a brutal spasm of sectarian cleansing.
* More than 8,000 displaced families relocated to Amiriya, the neighborhood where the Sunni Awakening began in Baghdad.
* Adhamiya, a Sunni island in Shiite east Baghdad, was walled and restricted along with other neighborhoods in 2007 for security.
* Neighborhoods east of the Tigris River are generally more densely populated than areas to the west.
2003: Before the Invasion
Before the American invasion, Baghdad's major sectarian groups lived mostly side by side in mixed neighborhoods. The city's Shiite and Sunni populations were roughly equal, according to Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert.
* Kadhimiya, a historically Shiite neighborhood, is home to a sacred Shiite shrine.
* Adhamiya, a historically Sunni neighborhood, contains the Abu Hanifa Mosque, a Sunni landmark.
* The Green Zone became the heavily fortified center of American operations during the occupation.
* Sadr City was the center of the insurgent Mahdi Army, led by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
2009: Violence Fuels Segregation
Sectarian violence exploded in 2006. Families living in areas where another sect was predominant were threatened with violence if they did not move. By 2009 Shiites were a majority, with Sunnis reduced to about 10 percent to 15 percent of the population.
* Huriya was transformed in 2006 when the Mahdi Army pushed out hundreds of families in a brutal spasm of sectarian cleansing.
* More than 8,000 displaced families relocated to Amiriya, the neighborhood where the Sunni Awakening began in Baghdad.
* Adhamiya, a Sunni island in Shiite east Baghdad, was walled and restricted along with other neighborhoods in 2007 for security.
* Neighborhoods east of the Tigris River are generally more densely populated than areas to the west.
Source: Dr. M. Izady, Columbia University's Gulf 2000 project
Source: Satellite image by NASA
Sources: Global Terrorism Database, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (attack data); Congressional Research Service; Council on Foreign Relations; Long War Journal; Institute for the Study of War
Source: 'The Islamic State in Iraq Returns to Diyala' by Jessica Lewis, Institute for the Study of War
Safin Hamed/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images
Meanwhile, in Hilla, south of Baghdad, dozens of Sunni prisoners were said have been killed as they were being transported by security forces to a more secure prison. As the troubling news emerged about a new sectarian massacre, officials gave conflicting explanations.
Security officials said that at least 69 prisoners were killed, many of them senior leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the forerunner of ISIS. One account, given by an intelligence officer in Hilla who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the policemen who were transporting the prisoners 'just stopped the buses on the highway before they reached their final destination and shot them dead.'
However, other security and local officials said the convoy was ambushed by militants, and that some prisoners died during the clashes.
Sadiq al-Sultani, the governor of Hilla, said at a news conference on Monday that 'the convoy of prisoners was attacked by militants on the highway,' and that 10 militants and 15 prisoners were killed. 'The rest of the prisoners were transported to another jail,' he said.
The episode in Hilla follows the discovery in a police station last week of the bodies of 44 Sunni prisoners who were held by the Shiite-led Iraqi government in Baquba, north of Baghdad.
{ 0 comments... Views All / Send Comment! }
Post a Comment