Sectarian Strife in Baghdad and Herat-Afghanistan ¶ Updated

Civil war looms as sectarian strife is stillon the increase in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan and Lebanon. Pressure inreases in Pakistan and India, which reflects the Kasmir dispute. The Danish cartoons were manipulated to light another fuse under the powder keg of the ME and Islamic world.

Pakistani Kashmiris burn an effigy of
the Danish prime minister in Muzaffarabad,
capital of Pakistani Kashmir. USAToday

Sunni Mosque Leader Kidnapped in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (ABC News/AP) Feb. 10 — Adel Khalil Dawoud, imam of the Nuaimi Sunni Muslim mosque in Baghdad’s northern Shaab district, was taken from his home shortly after midnight, relatives and eyewitnesses told investigating police officers, said Lt. Mohammed Khayoun.

Eyewitnesses told police that 12 men wearing Interior Ministry special forces uniforms knocked on the imam’s door in central Baghdad’s Karradah neighborhood early Friday, asked for proof of identity and drove him away in one of three four-wheel drive vehicles, said Khayoun, the police spokesman.

Interior Ministry officials had no immediate comment, on whether those who detained Dawoud were actually police officers or people in disguise.

Sunni leaders cite a spate of kidnappings and killings of Sunni Arabs as examples of the discrimination they face in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, where Interior Ministry forces are now controlled by Shiite Muslims who had long been suppressed under the ex-president’s regime.

Sectarian violence threatens fragile U.S.-backed political negotiations to form a national unity government that would see dominant Shiites and Kurds welcome Sunni Arabs into powerful positions. Sunni Arabs form the backbone of the raging insurgency, and bringing them into the government is seen as a way to reduce the violence.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the prominent Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front, which won 44 seats in Dec. 15 elections for the 275-member parliament, condemned Dawoud’s kidnapping.

“These kidnappings have increased lately and include the abduction of men and women, Iraqis and non-Iraqis,” he said. “We condemn these operations and we hope that the kidnappers would release these hostages unharmed.”

  «« click to enlarge
This is an image from TV showing kidnapped
U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, appearing on
a video aired in Kuwait, asking people to
do whatever her Iraqi kidnappers want to
get her released. Video was aired on Kuwaiti
television, saying 'there is a very short time.'
AP Photo/ Alrai TV via APTN

Al-Dulaimi, who 28-year-old Jill Carroll was scheduled to interview when she was abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad, demanded Iraqi authorities to end such kidnappings and “restore security.”

The Christian Science Monitor freelance reporter was seen late Thursday in the third video aired since her Jan. 7 abduction by a group called the “Revenge Brigades.” She appealed in a calm, composed voice for her supporters to do whatever it takes to win her release “as quickly as possible.”

In the 22-second tape, Carroll, who wore a traditional Arab veil, said the date was Feb. 2 and that she had sent one letter and was sending another to “prove I am with the mujahedeen.”

The tape was broadcast by private Kuwaiti station Al Rai TV, unlike the first two that appeared on Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV without any sound, in line with that station’s policy.

Update [2006-2-10 11:45am PST by Oui]:  
≈ Cross-posted from earlier comment ≈
Dutch F-16’s Used To Disperse Angry Crowds in Afghanistan to assist Norwegian ISAF Forces under attack with rocks and grenades at their military NATO base.

The F-16 fighter aircraft tried first with several low passes, but needed to fire their board cannons as warning that the crowds should back-off. Afghan police came in for support and gunfire was exchanged leaving at least four dead.

###

Four killed as Afghan crowd attacks Norwegian base

KABUL (Reuters) Feb. 7 — Afghan police opened fire on a mob trying to storm a NATO peacekeeping base housing Norwegian troops, killing four people and wounding 18 as protests over cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Mohammad flared again.

Afghan protesters hold banners and chant slogans during a protest in Herat against cartoons published in Denmark. Protests were also staged in Kabul, Peshawar, Tehran and Kut in Iraq (5,000 men), the stronghold of Al Sadr. Ahmad Fahim/Reuters

British troops were sent to the northwestern city of Maymana to secure the airfield, after crowds attacked a NATO base with guns and grenades.

“Police had to open fire. Some people are aiming to disrupt and disturb security,” said Azim Hakimi, spokesman for the provincial security department. “Some people used guns.”

Crowds of young men also threw grenades and petrol bombs at the camp manned by Norwegian troops. Two Norwegian soldiers were slightly hurt.

The Norwegians fired teargas while Dutch F-16 jets flew over Maymana in a show of force, a spokeswoman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.

The worst of the violence was outside Bagram, the main U.S. base north of Kabul, with Afghan police firing on some 2,000 protesters as they tried to break into the heavily guarded facility, said Kabir Ahmed, the local government chief. Two of the demonstrators were killed and five were injured, while eight police were also hurt. No U.S. troops were involved in the incident, Ahmed said.

Xenophobia and Racism in Denmark