Shiite-vs.-Sunni violence turns into open warfare

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Bloodshed that has continued for months between rival Shiite Muslims and Sunni Arabs has erupted into open warfare among the towns and lush palm groves along the Tigris River.

At least 91 people have died in four days of violence, and many have fled for their lives.

The sectarian slaughter has gripped Balad, a Shiite enclave in a largely Sunni region an hour's drive north of the capital and near a major U.S. air base.

The U.S. military has so far kept a low profile in Balad. The two runways at the air base on the outskirts of Balad are among the world's busiest, launching 27,500 aircraft a month, hundreds of them bomb-laden jets that support U.S. troops moving against insurgents. The base is also the supply hub for all U.S. military operations in Iraq.

Although Baghdad has been the nexus of the Shiite-Sunni struggle for months, sectarian killing exploded in river towns about 50 miles north of the capital Friday after the slaying of 17 Shiite farmworkers from Duluiyah, a predominantly Sunni town near Balad. Revenge-seeking Shiite death squads then killed 74 Sunnis, causing people to flee across the Tigris River to Duluiyah.

Over the weekend, Taysser Musawi, a Shiite cleric in Balad, said Shiite leaders in the town had appealed to Muqtada al-Sadr, an influential cleric whose bloc is the largest in Iraq's Shiite-led government, to send militiamen to defend local Shiites and take revenge.

Shiite fighters responded in force, local police said. Witnesses said Shiite fighters began hunting down Sunnis, allegedly setting up checkpoints in the area to stop travelers and demand to know whether they were Shiite or Sunni.

The violence in Balad was unusual because of the sustained deployment of the militias on the streets, and the killing seemed particularly vicious. Balad was "under siege from all sides," police 1st Lt. Bassim Hamdi said Monday by telephone from the city.

Most Sunni families fled the city, Hamdi said. He said on Sunday that armed outsiders wearing black, apparently Shiite militiamen, were patrolling the streets in pickup trucks, and that there was heavy gunfire outside town.

"The situation outside of Balad is really bad," he said.

Overnight, mortar rounds struck Balad, killing five, and Shiite militiamen retaliated by attacking Sunni districts, officials and residents said.

Across the river, police Maj. Hussein Alwan said, commandos believed to be members of the Shiite Badr Organization had entered Duluiyah. The organization, also known as the Badr Brigade, is a militia of another large Shiite religious party in Iraq's government, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

In tiny Sunni towns throughout the area, Sunni men and boys as young as 10 took up arms to defend against any Shiite militias entering, said Khaled al-Jubouri, a Sunni sheik in Duluiyah. Al-Jubouri said he had declined a request for peace talks with the Shiite elders of Balad, and he wanted the Shiite militiamen to surrender to Sunni authorities and apologize.

Balad's hospital morgue received 80 victims, said Hasanein al-Badawi, a physician at the hospital.

Members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia were blocking Sunni families from picking up more of their dead from the streets, he said.

On Monday, Sunni families fleeing Balad described Shiite militias going door-to-door, giving people two hours to clear out.

A police officer in Duluiyah, Capt. Qaid al-Azawi, accused American forces of standing by in Balad while militiamen in police cars and police uniforms slaughtered Sunnis. But al-Azawi said Americans did act in Duluiyah, arresting three local police officers whom they suspected of being involved in the fighting.

Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said he had no information on these specific reports. "We're providing assistance where we see criminal behavior, such as violence and killing," he said.