Word: sunni
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Friday marks a year since U.S. soldiers toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdous Square, and yet the battle for Iraq suddenly seems far from over. The past week has seen the heaviest fighting since the end of the war as U.S. and Coalition forces battle Sunni and Shiite insurgents for control of the streets in Baghdad's Shiite slums, the Sunni Triangle towns of Fallujah, Ramadi and Baquba; and the southern Shiite cities of Najaf, Karbala, Nasiriyah, Kut, Amara, Diwaniyah and Basra. At least 32 U.S. troops and more than 200 Iraqis have been killed...
...Shiite south adds to the burden on the already stretched combat resources available to Coalition commanders. The European peacekeepers deployed in the southern towns came to Iraq believing they would be operating in a relatively benign environment, freeing up U.S. forces for counterinsurgency actions in Baghdad and the Sunni Triangle. But the outbreak of hostilities in the southern cities has put troops from Italy, Spain, El Salvador, Poland, Ukraine and Bulgaria on the front lines. The Bulgarian government called on Wednesday for U.S. reinforcements to help its 450 soldiers under fire in Karbala, while the Ukrainian contingent...
...This Shiite uprising is a disturbing development for the U.S. as it looks to turn over political control of Iraq on June 30. Until now, violence against U.S. troops and their allies had come almost exclusively from the country's Sunni Arab minority. But if the weekend's violence portends the onset of sustained resistance from the Shiite majority as well, U.S. authority Iraq may be in peril...
...Shiite challenge is different from the Sunni insurgency. Instead of guerrillas attacking from the shadows and melting back into the civilian population, Moqtada al-Sadr has built a grassroots infrastructure for insurrection, with support structures in local mosques dotted around the country recruiting young men for his "Army of the Mahdi" militia. Following the arrest of one of his top aides on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a pro-U.S. cleric almost a year ago (the same incident for which Moqtada is now wanted) and the closure of his newspaper last week, the 30-year-old cleric...
...launched a national campaign against the minority veto provisions in the U.S.-brokered interim constitution, and he continues to push for early elections. The political price for his support against Moqtada would likely be a substantial rewriting of the transition plan, which could open new conflicts with the Sunni and Kurdish communities. Even then, the outpouring of Shiite popular anger evident in last weekend's violence may be difficult for Sistani to restrain...