Iraq Officials Struggle to Contain Tension

[sabra]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3534216.html

Iraq Officials Struggle to Contain Tension


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"I am neither Sunni nor Shiia. We are all Iraqi," goes the line, assertively spoken by some who dismiss fears that the country is heading toward civil war.

Others, however, utter the mantra with less certainty.

...

There are concerns that relations may worsen as Iraqi forces _ composed of mostly Shiites and Kurds _ assume responsibility for patrolling Sunni areas as the Americans gradually withdraw from Diyala.

...

When an Iraqi Army Major in Baqouba claimed there was no violence between Iraqis, his Shiite interpreter burst into laughter.

Professor Yitzhak Nakash of Brandeis University, author of "The Shi`is of Iraq," said the tensions in Iraq are similar to those in 1920-21 when colonial Britain pitted groups against each other to strengthen their rule of the country.