Have you ever saw Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obaidi? Is he Shia or Sunni?
Imad al-Hasimi, a Sunni elder in Hurriyah, confirmed Hussein´s account. He told Al-Arabiya television he saw people who were soaked in kerosene, then set afire, burning before his eyes.
Two workers at Kazamiyah Hospital said the bodies from the clashes and immolations had been taken to the morgue at their facility. They refused to be identified by name, saying they feared retribution.
In spite of the police and witness accounts, however, President Jamal Talabani appeared to discount the reports. He emerged from meetings with other Iraqi political leaders late Friday and said Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obaidi told him that the Hurriyah neighborhood had been quiet throughout the day.
According to Hussein, the police official, militiamen rampaged through the district, setting fire to several homes in addition to the four mosques that were bombed and burned.
Some residents claimed that the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has begun kidnapping and holding Sunni hostages in order to slaughter them at funerals of Shiite victims of Baghdad´s sectarian violence.
Such claims cannot be verified but speak to the deep fear that grips Baghdad, where retaliation has become a part of daily life.
http://www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/id/D8LK07F80
Is he Shia or Sunni?
Iraqi Interior minister Jawad Bolani (C) speaks during a joint press conference with Defence minister Abdul Qader Mohammed Jassim al-Obeidi (R) and Higher Education minister Abed Dhiab al-Ujaili (L), in Baghdad, 20 November 2006. The ministers spoke about last week's kidnapping of dozens of people from a Ministry of Higher Education office in central Baghdad. 11:08 a.m. ET, 11/20/06