Underscoring the nebulous nature of Iraq’s latest war, as well as the growing sectarian divide it is creating, locals in Tikrit are complaining that a recent military air strike against their town killed a number of innocent civilians.
The locals of the overwhelmingly Sunni Arab town say that the strike killed combatants, but also seven civilians, and wounded at least 12 other civilian bystanders.
Iraq’s military, itself overwhelmingly Shi’ite, denies the claim, and insists everyone killed was a “Sunni extremist,” which doesn’t necessarily preclude non-ISIS victims, but does reflect how the Maliki government sees its Sunni minority.
In addition to being a war crime, killing civilians is extremely counterproductive for the Maliki government, which is trying to present itself as a “unifier” of Iraq’s various ethnic and religious minorities, but which in practice seems to view them all as enemies.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz
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Just to enlighten you, sunny Muslims of Iraq are not a minority on the contrary,
They are majority the reason why the present government refuses to take count.
Enlighten us further…care to cite some sources for your claim? Almost everything I've seen indicate a 2:1 majority to the Shia.
Correct. At last count, the majority of Iraq's Muslim population (was) Shia (65%).
Sunni (was) nearly (35%). However, with the seemingly endless bloodshed taking
place, coupled with the million or so Iraqis murdered by the Bush regime, it's
difficult to be sure.
But in order for the ratio of Sunni to Shia to flip, there would have to be a net loss of roughly 5 million Shia…and I don't see that happening, especially with a Shia government.