Sunni

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A Prison Aims to Deprogram Young Jihadists

Shia and Sunni students agree on nothing but Harry Potter

(Newser) - The high-security Iraqi prison that once held Saddam Hussein now hosts a pilot program to reeducate jihadist youth. Newsweek visited Camp Cropper, which for the past two months has offered classes and psychological guidance aimed at deprogramming would-be suicide bombers. But the teachers have struggled because the hatred in the...

More Cabinet Defections Imperil Iraqi Regime

Political chaos rises as more cabinet-members

(Newser) - Four more Iraqi cabinet ministers said today they're boycotting meetings, bringing the total to a whopping 17 and leaving PM Nouri al-Maliki with a tenuous majority in the 37-member body. In the latest round of infighting, the newest defectors, all allies of the country's first postwar PM, charge that Maliki...

Iraqi Parliament Takes a Break
Iraqi Parliament Takes a Break

Iraqi Parliament Takes a Break

Little movement on key legislation as body adjourns through August

(Newser) - Saying PM Nouri al-Maliki's government had given it little to work with, Iraq's parliament began a 5-week recess today, Reuters reports. The chamber normally begins its summer break in July, but with crucial legislation pending, members delayed. Squabbling between political factions then stalled laws seen as vital to mending the...

Saudi King Backs Iraq's Sunni Rebels

Ally undermining Bush strategy and fledgling government

(Newser) - Saudi Arabia is working at cross purposes with the Bush administration in Iraq by backing Sunni tribes engaged in sectarian violence there, the New York Times reports. King Abdullah has funded the Sunnis and is allowing insurgents to enter the country, US officials charge. Of up to 80 foreign fighters...

Iraqi Minister Hunted for Murder
Iraqi Minister Hunted for Murder

Iraqi Minister Hunted for Murder

Accused of killing politician's sons in assassination attack

(Newser) - Police raided the Baghdad home of Iraq's Sunni culture minister yesterday seeking to arrest him for the murder of the sons of a prominent politician during a 2005 assassination attempt, CNN reports. Assad al-Hashimi, who was not in his house, said he was being unfairly targeted. He was implicated by...

Lebanon Bomb Kills Six UN Soldiers
Lebanon Bomb Kills Six UN Soldiers

Lebanon Bomb Kills Six UN Soldiers

Suicide attack piques terrorism worries; Fatah al-Islam suspected

(Newser) - A car bomb killed six members of a Spanish UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon  yesterday, in the first attack in a year on peacekeepers there. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing near Khiyam, but observers suspect Fatah al-Islam, the same al-Qaeda-spawned Sunni group that battled Lebanon at the...

Iraqi PM in Trouble With Fellow Shiites

Top officials threaten to jump ship over continuing violence

(Newser) - Disillusionment with PM Nouri al-Maliki is growing within the Iraqi government.  Vice President Abdul Mahdi resigned last week--he was persuaded to stay, at least  temporarily--and others may follow, the Washington Post reports. Discontent stems from Mailiki's apparent inability to curb violence, boost the economy and build power-sharing with the...

Dozens Dead in Baghdad Mosque Blast
Dozens Dead in Baghdad
Mosque Blast

Dozens Dead in Baghdad Mosque Blast

More than 200 hurt as violence against Shia holy sites continues

(Newser) - A car bomb exploded near a Shia mosque in Baghdad today just as afternoon prayers were ending, killing at least 75. More than 200 people were injured in the blast, which sent smoke billowing over the central city. The explosion came 2 days after officials lifted a curfew imposed following...

US Launches Major Attack on Sunni Insurgents

Americans take the fight outside of Baghdad to al Qaeda HQ

(Newser) - Two thousand U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a large-scale assault on Sunni insurgents in Diyala province last night, pursuing militants who have moved their strongholds outside of Baghdad. The offensive in the province's capital, Baquba, is part of a much larger operation attacking centers of insurgency all over Iraq....

US Joins Sunni Militants to Smash Qaeda

Officer on alliance: 'We have made a deal with the devil'

(Newser) - American soldiers in Baghdad's violent Amiriyah district of have formed an unlikely alliance in an effort to root out al-Qaeda In Iraq. US troops are giving guns, and even the power of arrest, to a Sunni paramilitary group—and a week into the partnership, they’ve helped kill or capture...

Times and Post Split on Iraqi Infighting

The tale of two papers and the Sunni insurgency

(Newser) - It definitely is the worst of times in Iraq, the New York Times and the Washington Post seem to agree, but today, the nation's most prestigious dailies differed on the details. One fact is indisputable: Sunni insurgents clashed in Baghdad's Amiriya district this week, but the papers disagree on the...

Al-Sadr Appears at Iraqi Mosque
Al-Sadr Appears at Iraqi Mosque

Al-Sadr Appears at Iraqi Mosque

Shiite firebrand returns from Iran, invites Sunnis to join in opposing US

(Newser) - Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr emerged from hiding today, making a surprise appearance near the Iraqi city of Najaf. Al-Sadr, who fled to Iran four months ago, gave a sermon at Kufa today, condemning the US occupation and demanding a "timetable" for withdrawal. In a shift away from sectarianism, he...

Morgue Stats Show Surge in Iraqi Killings

321 corpses found in Baghdad in first three weeks of May alone

(Newser) - Statistics from Iraqi morgues show that three months into the surge, sectarian killings are rising, the Washington Post reports. In the first three weeks of May, 321 unidentified corpses, many showing signs of exectution and torture, were found in Baghdad. The number equals those found in all of January, the...

Iran Said to Be Plotting Iraq Offensive

Makes new allies to increase violence, prompt withdrawal

(Newser) - Iran is secretly allying with al-Qaeda and Sunni insurgents to launch a major summer offensive against the US in Iraq, reports the Guardian. The goal is  to trigger a political mutiny in Congress to force a withdrawal of US troops. Iran had previously been linked to Shia militias but had...

Shiite al-Sadr Reaches Out to Sunni Rivals

Switch in tactics aims at hastening US withdrawal

(Newser) - In a dramatic shift in tacttics, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is reaching out to rival Sunni leaders in Iraq, and purging radical elements of his own militia, the Washington Post reports. With Sunni insurgents making moves to distance themselves from al-Qaeda, Sadr sees an opportunity for a cross-sectarian political alliance,...

Tribes Claim Al-Qaeda Head Killed by Rivals

Leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq said to be victim of Insurgent infighting

(Newser) - The head of al-Qaeda in Iraq is dead, according to the Iraqi government. Abu Ayyub al-Masri was killed in a skirmish between rival groups of militants, officials said today, suggesting the possibility of exploitable rifts in the Sunni insurgency. The U.S. military has not verified the claim because a...

Sunnis Threaten To Quit Cabinet
Sunnis Threaten To Quit Cabinet

Sunnis Threaten To Quit Cabinet

The largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament issues an ultimatum

(Newser) - The largest bloc of Sunni Arabs in Iraq's parliament threatened to pull its five ministers out of the cabinet yesterday, the New York Times reports. To forestall the pullout, which would further undermine the faltering government, President Bush phoned Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab vice president, to discuss their concerns.

Iraqi PM Calls Off Wall
Iraqi PM Calls Off Wall

Iraqi PM Calls Off Wall

Prime Minister al-Maliki ordered a stop to a wall between a Sunni and Shiite neighborhood

(Newser) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki halted construction of a wall between a Sunni neighborhood and surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad yesterday, after outraged protests by both Sunnis and Shiites. Al-Maliki said he did not want Iraqis to be reminded of "other walls"—a reference to the barrier being...

Eight Dead In Bombing of Iraqi Parliament

Suspected suicide bomber was bodyguard of Sunni MP

(Newser) - Eight people, including three lawmakers, were killed and at least 30 wounded when a suicide bomber eluded the normally heavy security around the Green Zone and  denonated an explosion in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament. Officials believe the culprit was the bodyguard of a Sunni legislator not among the...

Mosque Raid Ignites Baghdad Battle
Mosque Raid Ignites Baghdad Battle

Mosque Raid Ignites Baghdad Battle

Residents backed militants in Sunni stronghold

(Newser) - Iraqi soldiers who raided a Baghdad mosque during worship set off an all-day battle yesterday the New York Times calls the most sustained fighting since the start of the new security plan. US troops and Iraqi soldiers fought Sunni militants joined by residents in the largely Sunni Ineighborhood of Fadhil.

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