Posted on 09/30/2006 6:40:23 PM PDT by bnelson44
BAQUBA, Iraq • Iraqi military forces have defeated what they called an attempt to create a breakaway Sunni religious territory in Iraq's eastern Diyala province, an army spokesman said yesterday.
"We foiled an attempt to establish an emirate in Diyala," said Brigadier General Shakr Al Kaabi of the Iraqi Army's Fifth Division on the second day of a wide-ranging operation sweeping through the provincial seat of Baquba. He added that according to their intelligence, this "emirate" – a term which can mean an independent state under a religious leader – was to have been announced at the end of Ramadan.
One of Iraq's most mixed Sunni-Shiite provinces, Diyala has in recent months been the site of brutal attacks mostly aimed at driving out civilians from rival sectarian groups.
"Inside the Al Aqsa mosque we found leaflets calling for the forcible displacement of Shi’ites and promoting sectarian strife," Kaabi said, adding that they also found explosives tucked inside a coffin hidden in the mosque.
By the second day of the operation, 130 people had been arrested, including 85 who were on wanted lists.
Diyala has long been a haven for extremist Sunni groups.
I hope they detonated it in place with the imam of that scumhole mosque strapped to it.
L
If true, this is significant. I usually don't put much value on reports of how many people arrested. But if that many were actually wanted, rather than just folks who happened to be in the area, then that is a windfall.
It says to me that they're in the mood to round everybody up and sort them out later. And I think that's a good thing -- I was just thinking they ought to do that in B-diddy this weekend. They're playing for keeps right now -- martial law and a weekend long curfew. I hope it's an offensive and not being done out of desperation. And I hope they keep it up.
We will see. Baqubah is a much smaller place than Baghdad, and people tend to know each other there.
Yes. But if these folks are on wanted lists then they will not be back on the street in 48 hours and they were probably up to no good. That is much better than the standard "x number of people taken prisoner [and released 48 hours later.]"
Returning the favor.
** "Inside the Al Aqsa mosque we found leaflets calling for the forcible displacement of Shi’ites and promoting sectarian strife," Kaabi said, adding that they also found explosives tucked inside a coffin hidden in the mosque. **
Glad to hear the Iraqis are checking out the mosques.
The Sunnis are lucky the Shiites even allow them to breathe after suffering under 30 years of Hussein's Sunni dominated rule.
The Iraqi leadership needs to start forcibly deporting Sunnis to Kurdistan, in order to break up these Sunni strongholds.
The Kurds don't take any of this crap. And they will take care of the Sunnis if they get out of line.
There is too much at stake to keep pussyfooting around with the Sunni areas around Bagdad.
General Shakr who announced this news is Sunni. Half the officer corps of the Iraqi Army is Sunni.
The Sunni community is as fractious as one could imagine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.