Related
Work on Baghdad wall continues
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Original in Arabic
Machine translation
Maliki backtrack on his statements (orders) to continue building the wall in sectarian hung history 23 / 04 / 2007 9:39:22 | section : policy-our sources that Nouri Al-Malki retreat from his earlier statements and is moving ahead with the construction of the wall that separates the area from the rest hung areas of Baghdad, sources reported that telephone call today Maliki and library in Baghdad gave orders to build the wall falls down yesterday to the Secretary-General of the League Arab and to the entire world, which was heard across the screens
Showing posts with label Baghdad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baghdad. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Israelis with Ahmed Chalabi are building the walls in Iraq
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
من يبني الحائط؟
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دار بابل للدراسات والإعلام - الموصل
ـ24 نيسان 2007
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Dar Babel for Studies & Information (Mosul) has issued a report (above, in Arabic, April 24, 2007) indicating that work on the "walls" that are now being put up in Iraq have been in preparation for over three months. This project is being headed by Ahmad Al-Chalabi in conjunction with the Israeli company of Zeef Belinsky who has a long track record in ghetto construction, and with Al-Mahdi Army's financing and labor. The document provides sufficient details on the six work locations producing these concrete blocks, for easier targeting.
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Friday, April 13, 2007
Questions for Time magazine
Friday, April 13, 2007
(This is an expanded version of an earlier post called "Questions for Time magazine"; the material relating to Time is down in the second half of this).
The Islamic State of Iraq has posted claims of responsibility for the Green Zone bombing, (thanks to veteran chat-site navigator Abu Aardvark for calling attention to that) which the ISI says was carried out by a suicide bomber. These claims, which can be found among other places on the "news" forum of muslm.net, are signed by something called the Fajr Media Center, and there isn't any question they have been issued by the ISI organization. The following comments have to do with a different question: Assuming ISI responsibility, there are reports about a relationship between the attack and the emerging dispute between AlQaeda/ISI on the one side and the domestic resistance groups apparently led by Islamic Army in Iraq on the other.
Al-Hayat says there was a video announcement yesterday by someone known as Abu Suleiman al-Atibi who calls himself the "lawful judge of the Islamic State of Iraq", and the paper has this to say about it, after describing the events of the bombing:
In any event, if the statement by the "judicial officer" cited by Al-Hayat this morning is authentic, and the paper's acceptance of it suggests it is, then apparently the the hard-line domestic resistance represented by Qalamji wasn't the only group alarmed by even this conditional suggestion of negotiations.
Still, there is something considerably fishy about what Time magazine is reporting on its website about this.
In its article yesterday on the Green Zone bombing, Time said this:
But notice the light blue strip at the top, right above the yellow exclamation point. In an authentic posting, that light blue strip is a little wider, and serves as the background for a couple of important pieces of information printed in black. At the right-hand side, there is always the screen-name of the poster, and a button next to that name, triggering a pull-down menu with two items: You can look at all of the postings of this particular individual (even if you are not a registered user); or you can look at his personal information (for which you have to be registered). And at the left-hand side, also against the background of the light-blue bar, there is the date of the poster's registration as a user, and the number of his "participations", which means either postings or postings and comments. This obviously serves as a rudimentary or entry-level check on reliability, because it shows how long the person has been posting, and what he has been posting.
Anyone with the expertise to find a posting like this would obviously first check the name of the poster and his posting history, to see if he is a known quantity or not. Iraqslogger said it wasn't taking this as necessarily an Al-Qaeda message. "The statements" of the Islamic State of Iraq, it said, "are usually more detailed with more verifiable information, often containing florid prose and multiple references to the Quran." But really, the first question is where Iraqslogger got this screenshot, because it would seem if they went to the muslm.net site and saw it there themselves, the light-blue bar would in fact be the background for the name of the poster and the other information to be found there. And if they got it from Time, then the same question: Where exactly did Time find it, and where is the basic information one looks for printed on that light-blue bar?
The solution, of course, is to go to the site and find the posting ourselves. But I do not see it there, and as far as I am aware, no one else has found it there either.
This is not just a question of the authenticity of a posted message, if in fact there was one, because unless there is some explanation, this would be a question of Time magazine relying on an obvious, clearly recognizable forgery to anchor a news story. The lead to its story yesterday went like this: "In an assault apparently aimed at chilling negotiations between the Iraqi government and a faction of the insurgency, the Iraqi Parliament, located in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, suffered a bomb attack." The phrase "apparently aimed at chilling negotiations..." refers to the supposed posting in question.
The Islamic State of Iraq has posted claims of responsibility for the Green Zone bombing, (thanks to veteran chat-site navigator Abu Aardvark for calling attention to that) which the ISI says was carried out by a suicide bomber. These claims, which can be found among other places on the "news" forum of muslm.net, are signed by something called the Fajr Media Center, and there isn't any question they have been issued by the ISI organization. The following comments have to do with a different question: Assuming ISI responsibility, there are reports about a relationship between the attack and the emerging dispute between AlQaeda/ISI on the one side and the domestic resistance groups apparently led by Islamic Army in Iraq on the other.
Al-Hayat says there was a video announcement yesterday by someone known as Abu Suleiman al-Atibi who calls himself the "lawful judge of the Islamic State of Iraq", and the paper has this to say about it, after describing the events of the bombing:
The AlQaeda organization had threatened yesterday to "cut off the head of those who resist [us], and [he said] in a video message, "I warn the tribe of those among the proprietors of party and politics, who make a weapon of double-dealing..." and he added, tacitly referring the differences that have widened recently between AlQaeda and Iraqi armed groups, "we will cut off their hands and we will strike them in the neck".The Al-Hayat reporter then refers to recent interview statements by the head of the Islamic Army in Iraq that have been taken loosely to mean a degree of openness to the idea of negotiating with the occupation. But at least for English-speaking readers it is worth noting what the Islamic Army person actually said (in an Al-Jazeera interview), because the reports in English having passed from hand to hand, have gotten a little distorted. Here's the relevant quote from the interview:
We do not reject in principle talks with the Americans or others, and we have laid out many times in official and other media our conditions for such talks, and we have emphasized that there are two conditions for successful talks, first that the American congress issue a binding decision announcing a complete withdrawal by a fixed date, and second, recognition that the resistance is the legitimate and sole representative of the Iraqi people.(This interview was published April 10, so the Awni Qalamji piece in Al-Quds al-Arabi, summarized in the prior post, was probably at least partly a reply to this, warning against thinking there is any possibility of any voluntary American withdrawal. Qalamji is associated with the domestic resistance. I'm sorry I'm reporting these out of chronological order).
In any event, if the statement by the "judicial officer" cited by Al-Hayat this morning is authentic, and the paper's acceptance of it suggests it is, then apparently the the hard-line domestic resistance represented by Qalamji wasn't the only group alarmed by even this conditional suggestion of negotiations.
Still, there is something considerably fishy about what Time magazine is reporting on its website about this.
In its article yesterday on the Green Zone bombing, Time said this:
Within an hour of the explosion, a message from the al-Qaeda-controlled Islamic State in Iraq was posted on a prominent militant website, muslm.net, calling the blast a "message" to anyone who cooperates with "the occupier and its agents." It said ominously, "We will reach you wherever you are"And Iraqslogger printed what it said was a screenshot of the item referred to, which you can see here. The text in red says: "This (referring to the GZ bombing) is a message of the Islamic State of Iraq to the Islamic Army: Anyone who is going to negotiate with the occupiers and their agents, we will find them wherever they are".
But notice the light blue strip at the top, right above the yellow exclamation point. In an authentic posting, that light blue strip is a little wider, and serves as the background for a couple of important pieces of information printed in black. At the right-hand side, there is always the screen-name of the poster, and a button next to that name, triggering a pull-down menu with two items: You can look at all of the postings of this particular individual (even if you are not a registered user); or you can look at his personal information (for which you have to be registered). And at the left-hand side, also against the background of the light-blue bar, there is the date of the poster's registration as a user, and the number of his "participations", which means either postings or postings and comments. This obviously serves as a rudimentary or entry-level check on reliability, because it shows how long the person has been posting, and what he has been posting.
Anyone with the expertise to find a posting like this would obviously first check the name of the poster and his posting history, to see if he is a known quantity or not. Iraqslogger said it wasn't taking this as necessarily an Al-Qaeda message. "The statements" of the Islamic State of Iraq, it said, "are usually more detailed with more verifiable information, often containing florid prose and multiple references to the Quran." But really, the first question is where Iraqslogger got this screenshot, because it would seem if they went to the muslm.net site and saw it there themselves, the light-blue bar would in fact be the background for the name of the poster and the other information to be found there. And if they got it from Time, then the same question: Where exactly did Time find it, and where is the basic information one looks for printed on that light-blue bar?
The solution, of course, is to go to the site and find the posting ourselves. But I do not see it there, and as far as I am aware, no one else has found it there either.
This is not just a question of the authenticity of a posted message, if in fact there was one, because unless there is some explanation, this would be a question of Time magazine relying on an obvious, clearly recognizable forgery to anchor a news story. The lead to its story yesterday went like this: "In an assault apparently aimed at chilling negotiations between the Iraqi government and a faction of the insurgency, the Iraqi Parliament, located in Baghdad's high-security Green Zone, suffered a bomb attack." The phrase "apparently aimed at chilling negotiations..." refers to the supposed posting in question.
The spectre of Saigon looms over Baghdad
Related
A bloody message from Iraq: nowhere is safe...
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Leading article
Published: 13 April 2007
The exact death toll had still to be established last night, but the symbolic significance of the attack was instantly clear. A suicide bomber had successfully penetrated the fortified "green zone" in Baghdad and blown himself up inside the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament. Three MPs were among the eight or more dead; at least 30 people were injured.
For several weeks now, the US military authorities have argued that an upsurge in violence was only to be expected as the new "surge" tactics started to bite. The enemy, they reasoned, would fight ever more desperately until it was finally overcome. The possibility that there might be a different explanation - that the "surge" might simply not be having the desired effect - was not entertained, at least in public pronouncements.
Yesterday's bombing constitutes a direct challenge to the US strategy in Iraq. The last time bombers successfully penetrated the "green zone" was in October 2004. Since then, the only violence had been at the outermost edges; its formidable security had held. That someone was able to pass through the security checks yesterday with explosives sufficient to inflict so much death and destruction means that the "green zone" can no longer be considered impregnable.
It hardly matters whether, as is suspected, the bomber was a security guard to an MP. The fact is that US forces are responsible for making the zone safe, and its security has now been compromised. All the elaborate fortifications and entry procedures will have to be reviewed.
That it was the Iraqi parliament that was targeted conveys an especially dispiriting message. The Parliament represents the last vestige of US (and British) hopes of planting something even faintly recognisable as democracy. The elections in December 2005 were, in retrospect, the high point of optimism for Iraq's future. Iraqis defied the threat of violence to cast their votes with quite extraordinary heroism. Already, though, their ministers and legislators seem estranged from them. If the Parliament is no longer able to meet, or if so many MPs fear for their security that they stop attending, the last chance for an orderly Iraq governed by Iraqis would seem to be gone for good.
The other risk is that any remaining confidence that the Americans are able to keep their allies safe will be undermined. Inside the "green zone" are not just the Iraqi parliament and many US military and diplomatic facilities. The "zone" is also home to many Iraq government offices and foreign representations; several thousand Iraqis live there. If the "zone" is seen to be vulnerable, all trust in the possibility of order spreading out from there to the rest of Baghdad will evaporate. The spectre of a Saigon-style retreat from Baghdad will be harder and harder to dispel.
This is the ninth week of the US "surge". More and more American and Iraqi soldiers are to be seen on Baghdad streets, as the attempt to crack down on the violence gains pace. The greater visibility of US troops, which is an integral part of the strategy, automatically makes them more vulnerable. It is probably inevitable that, even as the number of violent incidents has declined, US military casualties have increased.
For the strategy to work, it must do much more than multiply armed patrols. It must convince Iraqis that law and order can be restored, not just now but in the longer term. It is not just about deterring gunmen and bombers; it is about instilling confidence in the authorities' prospects of success and reducing support for militant sectarianism. The US "surge" already seemed to be in trouble; yesterday's bombing showed that the citadel could be breached. If and when the US abandons Iraq, this day will mark the beginning of that end.
A bloody message from Iraq: nowhere is safe...
---
Leading article
Published: 13 April 2007
The exact death toll had still to be established last night, but the symbolic significance of the attack was instantly clear. A suicide bomber had successfully penetrated the fortified "green zone" in Baghdad and blown himself up inside the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament. Three MPs were among the eight or more dead; at least 30 people were injured.
For several weeks now, the US military authorities have argued that an upsurge in violence was only to be expected as the new "surge" tactics started to bite. The enemy, they reasoned, would fight ever more desperately until it was finally overcome. The possibility that there might be a different explanation - that the "surge" might simply not be having the desired effect - was not entertained, at least in public pronouncements.
Yesterday's bombing constitutes a direct challenge to the US strategy in Iraq. The last time bombers successfully penetrated the "green zone" was in October 2004. Since then, the only violence had been at the outermost edges; its formidable security had held. That someone was able to pass through the security checks yesterday with explosives sufficient to inflict so much death and destruction means that the "green zone" can no longer be considered impregnable.
It hardly matters whether, as is suspected, the bomber was a security guard to an MP. The fact is that US forces are responsible for making the zone safe, and its security has now been compromised. All the elaborate fortifications and entry procedures will have to be reviewed.
That it was the Iraqi parliament that was targeted conveys an especially dispiriting message. The Parliament represents the last vestige of US (and British) hopes of planting something even faintly recognisable as democracy. The elections in December 2005 were, in retrospect, the high point of optimism for Iraq's future. Iraqis defied the threat of violence to cast their votes with quite extraordinary heroism. Already, though, their ministers and legislators seem estranged from them. If the Parliament is no longer able to meet, or if so many MPs fear for their security that they stop attending, the last chance for an orderly Iraq governed by Iraqis would seem to be gone for good.
The other risk is that any remaining confidence that the Americans are able to keep their allies safe will be undermined. Inside the "green zone" are not just the Iraqi parliament and many US military and diplomatic facilities. The "zone" is also home to many Iraq government offices and foreign representations; several thousand Iraqis live there. If the "zone" is seen to be vulnerable, all trust in the possibility of order spreading out from there to the rest of Baghdad will evaporate. The spectre of a Saigon-style retreat from Baghdad will be harder and harder to dispel.
This is the ninth week of the US "surge". More and more American and Iraqi soldiers are to be seen on Baghdad streets, as the attempt to crack down on the violence gains pace. The greater visibility of US troops, which is an integral part of the strategy, automatically makes them more vulnerable. It is probably inevitable that, even as the number of violent incidents has declined, US military casualties have increased.
For the strategy to work, it must do much more than multiply armed patrols. It must convince Iraqis that law and order can be restored, not just now but in the longer term. It is not just about deterring gunmen and bombers; it is about instilling confidence in the authorities' prospects of success and reducing support for militant sectarianism. The US "surge" already seemed to be in trouble; yesterday's bombing showed that the citadel could be breached. If and when the US abandons Iraq, this day will mark the beginning of that end.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Baghdad has changed dramatically
Posted on Tue, Mar. 20, 2007
By LEILA FADEL AND MOHAMMED AL DULAIMY
McClatchy News Service
BAGHDAD - In the four years since U.S. troops marched into Iraq, Baghdad, once a city where Sunni and Shiite Muslims mixed and intermarried, has become a maze of concrete blast walls.
Once-pleasant neighborhoods are now battle-weary front lines often empty of their original residents. And the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr, marches on.
Even as American military officials praise Sadr followers for cooperating with U.S. efforts to patrol Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, a Shiite stronghold, militia members continue to push into neighborhoods on the western bank of the Tigris River, where Sunnis long have dominated.
American and Iraqi officials have hailed the drop in violence they've seen since the Feb. 15 kickoff of the newest Baghdad security plan, which calls for 17,500 more U.S. troops in Baghdad.
But interviews with residents throughout the capital and a review of police reports shows that while violence may be down overall, the Mahdi Army continues its thrust into western Baghdad in what appears to be a drive to cut off Sunni neighborhoods in the west of the capital from Sunni neighborhoods to the south and southwest.
According to statistics that McClatchy Newspapers gathered from police officials, the number of unidentified bodies found in Baghdad has dropped dramatically, from an average of nearly 32 a day in December and early January to 14.25 since Feb. 15.
Nearly all those bodies were found in the neighborhoods of western Baghdad where residents report the Mahdi Army push.
The U.S. military acknowledges that ''elements of'' the Mahdi Army are still active in parts of Baghdad, even as the militia group allows coalition soldiers into Sadr City. Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for coalition forces, said it's too early to judge whether the Mahdi Army will lose influence and that events will unfold literally block by block.
''Since the sectarian violence began, [the Mahdi Army] has certainly gained influence in order to protect themselves against the Sunnis,'' he said. He pointed out that Sunni insurgents affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq continue to set off car bombs in Shiite areas. ''Al Qaeda is here, fueling this sectarian violence,'' Bleichwehl said.
When U.S. forces marched into Iraq in 2003, Baghdad was under Sunni control. Its wealthiest neighborhoods were largely Sunni. Its Shiite population was generally much poorer and lived in the vast area to the northeast now known as Sadr City and in smaller, isolated neighborhoods throughout the city.
But tens of thousands of Sunnis have fled to Sunni-dominated provinces outside the capital. Dr. Nuhad Abbas, a university professor who directs the Organization for the Care of the Displaced and Immigrant Affairs, places the number of Sunni families who've left Baghdad at more than 40,000.
At the end of last year, the Mahdi Army solidified its control in what had been mixed districts in northwest Baghdad, forcing the last 200 Sunni residents -- members of the Batta tribe -- from the Hurriyah neighborhood in early December. Witnesses to that battle say the militiamen burned Sunni homes, sometimes with the men still inside. Video of the final push has played repeatedly on Zawraa TV, a banned Iraqi station affiliated with Sunni insurgents that broadcasts via an Egyptian satellite.
The Mahdi Army now is struggling to take control of the once-mixed Amil neighborhood in the west, where Sunni members of the Janabi tribe are holding out in a small northern sector of the district.
Success there would leave the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Jihad surrounded by Shiite neighborhoods, and cut off from Sunni areas to the east and south.
For Sunnis, the battle for Amil has been a series of failed efforts to defend the area's seven Sunni mosques. The sixth mosque -- just west of the Janabat area, which is named for the Sunni tribe -- fell Feb. 4, according to residents, 11 days before the security plan began.
The mosque was bombed, and the building set ablaze. At least 25 homes around the mosque were burned as Sunnis fled.
The Mahdi Army briefly made a push for the final mosque, Abu Bakr, but fled when U.S. troops entered the area and set up in a school, residents said.
Amil is now grim for Sunnis. The Janabi tribe holdouts have Mahdi militiamen on three sides and only one route out: the dangerous road to the airport. Sadr offices have opened throughout the neighborhood. Only women from displaced Sunni families are allowed in, to take their belongings and go. First they check in with the Sadr offices, residents said.
Abdul Karim Ahmed, a Sunni, scoffs at the idea of returning, something that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki is promoting as part of the security plan. According to the Ministry of Migration and Displaced People, more than 1,000 families have returned to their homes throughout Baghdad.
''They want me to go back to my house?'' he said. ``How can I? It's been burned, and even if I go back I go to a neighborhood where the killers are still free.''
Life for Shiites who live in Amil is also rough. Rumors of a Sunni sniper strike fear in Shiites' hearts. ''In spite of all the displacing, Amil is not safe yet,'' said Hussein al Mayahi, 37, a Shiite taxi driver who lost three cousins to a mortar attack two weeks ago. ``We still have the Sunni Janabat area.''
In Jihad, which borders Amil to the west, sectarian killing continues, despite a stepped-up U.S. presence and a decline in violence, residents said.
''Dead bodies are found in the streets every morning, and many families, both Sunni and Shiite, have fled for their lives,'' said Samir Saeed, 26, who's stopped going to college in central Baghdad because of the dangerous trip on the airport road.
''You never know if it's good or bad, but by the afternoon everything is on fire,'' said Mustafa Mohammed, 27. ``The main fear is assassins. Gunmen drive by killing us, and you never know who is killing who.''
Other neighborhoods already have fallen to the Mahdi Army push. Chebab, a once-mixed district in southwest Baghdad, is fully controlled by the Mahdi Army, whose members were manning checkpoints openly last week, carrying weapons and wearing their trademark black uniforms.
Sunnis no longer can get to their mosque, which the Mahdi Army controls, residents reported.
Shiite militias remain active in Risala, a mostly Shiite area south of Amil. Last Tuesday, seven men were killed in a raid on a Sunni mosque that residents blamed on the Mahdi Army.
In Madaen, a mostly Sunni area southeast of the capital, U.S. and Iraqi government troops broke the Mahdi Army's occupation of a Sunni mosque three months ago. But that's been small consolation, residents said; the mosque now is guarded by commandos from the Shiite-dominated Iraqi police force and is off limits to both sects.
In the Sunni district of Ghazaliyah, the trees are gone along Meshajjar street, once known as the street of trees. The road divides the district between its mostly Sunni south and a tiny pocket of Shiites whose residences border a Shiite neighborhood that's been renamed from Shoala to Shoala al Sadrein -- ''the torch of the two Sadrs,'' referring to Muqtada al Sadr's father and a late relative.
Shiite bus drivers stop at the beginning of Meshajjar road, where a Sunni mosque is, and passengers board a bus driven by a Sunni for the rest of their journey, residents said.
U.S. troops have moved into Ghazaliyah, but residents said it had yet to help.
''I still see the insurgents carrying their weapons,'' said Adil al Qaisi, 28, who said Sunni insurgents had nearly killed him for pleading for the release of his Shiite neighbor. ``Ghazaliyah is now a cemetery . . . the streets are empty and we live in our house like dead people.''
Mansour, the main shopping district in central Baghdad, is plagued with gunmen and kidnappers, and while some stores remain open, shoppers prefer those on side streets away from traffic, which may contain a car bomb.
Markets, often the target of Sunni insurgent bombings, now are largely walled off, and only pedestrians are admitted behind the towering concrete walls.
Once, the Garden City Restaurant was jammed with patrons listening to Western music late into the night as they dined. Now it's usually empty.
In Yarmouk, an upper-class Sunni neighborhood known for its wealth and beauty, garbage litters the sidewalks, a stark contrast to the flowers that bloom in the medians. A playground that U.S. troops built was dismantled about four months ago, the slide and swings now used as roadblocks.
Residents have taken to blocking their own streets -- with dirt hills, palm tree trunks and barrels -- to protect themselves from Shiite militias and Sunni car bombs.
Samir Saeed, 26, a Sunni resident of Jihad, expressed the frustration felt by many in Baghdad:
``We used to live. Now we strive to exist. So what if we have freedom of speech. . . . What use is it if no one listens?''
Dulaimy is a McClatchy Newspapers special correspondent. Special correspondents Laith Hammoudi and Sahar Issa contributed to this report.
By LEILA FADEL AND MOHAMMED AL DULAIMY
McClatchy News Service
BAGHDAD - In the four years since U.S. troops marched into Iraq, Baghdad, once a city where Sunni and Shiite Muslims mixed and intermarried, has become a maze of concrete blast walls.
Once-pleasant neighborhoods are now battle-weary front lines often empty of their original residents. And the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of anti-American cleric Muqtada al Sadr, marches on.
Even as American military officials praise Sadr followers for cooperating with U.S. efforts to patrol Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, a Shiite stronghold, militia members continue to push into neighborhoods on the western bank of the Tigris River, where Sunnis long have dominated.
American and Iraqi officials have hailed the drop in violence they've seen since the Feb. 15 kickoff of the newest Baghdad security plan, which calls for 17,500 more U.S. troops in Baghdad.
But interviews with residents throughout the capital and a review of police reports shows that while violence may be down overall, the Mahdi Army continues its thrust into western Baghdad in what appears to be a drive to cut off Sunni neighborhoods in the west of the capital from Sunni neighborhoods to the south and southwest.
According to statistics that McClatchy Newspapers gathered from police officials, the number of unidentified bodies found in Baghdad has dropped dramatically, from an average of nearly 32 a day in December and early January to 14.25 since Feb. 15.
Nearly all those bodies were found in the neighborhoods of western Baghdad where residents report the Mahdi Army push.
The U.S. military acknowledges that ''elements of'' the Mahdi Army are still active in parts of Baghdad, even as the militia group allows coalition soldiers into Sadr City. Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for coalition forces, said it's too early to judge whether the Mahdi Army will lose influence and that events will unfold literally block by block.
''Since the sectarian violence began, [the Mahdi Army] has certainly gained influence in order to protect themselves against the Sunnis,'' he said. He pointed out that Sunni insurgents affiliated with al Qaeda in Iraq continue to set off car bombs in Shiite areas. ''Al Qaeda is here, fueling this sectarian violence,'' Bleichwehl said.
When U.S. forces marched into Iraq in 2003, Baghdad was under Sunni control. Its wealthiest neighborhoods were largely Sunni. Its Shiite population was generally much poorer and lived in the vast area to the northeast now known as Sadr City and in smaller, isolated neighborhoods throughout the city.
But tens of thousands of Sunnis have fled to Sunni-dominated provinces outside the capital. Dr. Nuhad Abbas, a university professor who directs the Organization for the Care of the Displaced and Immigrant Affairs, places the number of Sunni families who've left Baghdad at more than 40,000.
At the end of last year, the Mahdi Army solidified its control in what had been mixed districts in northwest Baghdad, forcing the last 200 Sunni residents -- members of the Batta tribe -- from the Hurriyah neighborhood in early December. Witnesses to that battle say the militiamen burned Sunni homes, sometimes with the men still inside. Video of the final push has played repeatedly on Zawraa TV, a banned Iraqi station affiliated with Sunni insurgents that broadcasts via an Egyptian satellite.
The Mahdi Army now is struggling to take control of the once-mixed Amil neighborhood in the west, where Sunni members of the Janabi tribe are holding out in a small northern sector of the district.
Success there would leave the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Jihad surrounded by Shiite neighborhoods, and cut off from Sunni areas to the east and south.
For Sunnis, the battle for Amil has been a series of failed efforts to defend the area's seven Sunni mosques. The sixth mosque -- just west of the Janabat area, which is named for the Sunni tribe -- fell Feb. 4, according to residents, 11 days before the security plan began.
The mosque was bombed, and the building set ablaze. At least 25 homes around the mosque were burned as Sunnis fled.
The Mahdi Army briefly made a push for the final mosque, Abu Bakr, but fled when U.S. troops entered the area and set up in a school, residents said.
Amil is now grim for Sunnis. The Janabi tribe holdouts have Mahdi militiamen on three sides and only one route out: the dangerous road to the airport. Sadr offices have opened throughout the neighborhood. Only women from displaced Sunni families are allowed in, to take their belongings and go. First they check in with the Sadr offices, residents said.
Abdul Karim Ahmed, a Sunni, scoffs at the idea of returning, something that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki is promoting as part of the security plan. According to the Ministry of Migration and Displaced People, more than 1,000 families have returned to their homes throughout Baghdad.
''They want me to go back to my house?'' he said. ``How can I? It's been burned, and even if I go back I go to a neighborhood where the killers are still free.''
Life for Shiites who live in Amil is also rough. Rumors of a Sunni sniper strike fear in Shiites' hearts. ''In spite of all the displacing, Amil is not safe yet,'' said Hussein al Mayahi, 37, a Shiite taxi driver who lost three cousins to a mortar attack two weeks ago. ``We still have the Sunni Janabat area.''
In Jihad, which borders Amil to the west, sectarian killing continues, despite a stepped-up U.S. presence and a decline in violence, residents said.
''Dead bodies are found in the streets every morning, and many families, both Sunni and Shiite, have fled for their lives,'' said Samir Saeed, 26, who's stopped going to college in central Baghdad because of the dangerous trip on the airport road.
''You never know if it's good or bad, but by the afternoon everything is on fire,'' said Mustafa Mohammed, 27. ``The main fear is assassins. Gunmen drive by killing us, and you never know who is killing who.''
Other neighborhoods already have fallen to the Mahdi Army push. Chebab, a once-mixed district in southwest Baghdad, is fully controlled by the Mahdi Army, whose members were manning checkpoints openly last week, carrying weapons and wearing their trademark black uniforms.
Sunnis no longer can get to their mosque, which the Mahdi Army controls, residents reported.
Shiite militias remain active in Risala, a mostly Shiite area south of Amil. Last Tuesday, seven men were killed in a raid on a Sunni mosque that residents blamed on the Mahdi Army.
In Madaen, a mostly Sunni area southeast of the capital, U.S. and Iraqi government troops broke the Mahdi Army's occupation of a Sunni mosque three months ago. But that's been small consolation, residents said; the mosque now is guarded by commandos from the Shiite-dominated Iraqi police force and is off limits to both sects.
In the Sunni district of Ghazaliyah, the trees are gone along Meshajjar street, once known as the street of trees. The road divides the district between its mostly Sunni south and a tiny pocket of Shiites whose residences border a Shiite neighborhood that's been renamed from Shoala to Shoala al Sadrein -- ''the torch of the two Sadrs,'' referring to Muqtada al Sadr's father and a late relative.
Shiite bus drivers stop at the beginning of Meshajjar road, where a Sunni mosque is, and passengers board a bus driven by a Sunni for the rest of their journey, residents said.
U.S. troops have moved into Ghazaliyah, but residents said it had yet to help.
''I still see the insurgents carrying their weapons,'' said Adil al Qaisi, 28, who said Sunni insurgents had nearly killed him for pleading for the release of his Shiite neighbor. ``Ghazaliyah is now a cemetery . . . the streets are empty and we live in our house like dead people.''
Mansour, the main shopping district in central Baghdad, is plagued with gunmen and kidnappers, and while some stores remain open, shoppers prefer those on side streets away from traffic, which may contain a car bomb.
Markets, often the target of Sunni insurgent bombings, now are largely walled off, and only pedestrians are admitted behind the towering concrete walls.
Once, the Garden City Restaurant was jammed with patrons listening to Western music late into the night as they dined. Now it's usually empty.
In Yarmouk, an upper-class Sunni neighborhood known for its wealth and beauty, garbage litters the sidewalks, a stark contrast to the flowers that bloom in the medians. A playground that U.S. troops built was dismantled about four months ago, the slide and swings now used as roadblocks.
Residents have taken to blocking their own streets -- with dirt hills, palm tree trunks and barrels -- to protect themselves from Shiite militias and Sunni car bombs.
Samir Saeed, 26, a Sunni resident of Jihad, expressed the frustration felt by many in Baghdad:
``We used to live. Now we strive to exist. So what if we have freedom of speech. . . . What use is it if no one listens?''
Dulaimy is a McClatchy Newspapers special correspondent. Special correspondents Laith Hammoudi and Sahar Issa contributed to this report.
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