Shia militia hunts down Shia police in Iraqi city as army stands aside

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/October/focusoniraq_October165.xml§ion=focusoniraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militiamen loyal to an anti-American cleric re-emerged in the southern city of Amarah, hunting down and killing four policemen from a rival militia in a brutal Shia-on-Shia settling of scores.

The Iraqi army set up a few roadblocks but did not interfere in the movement of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army fighters after police fled the streets. The latest attacks Monday came despite a public call by Al Sadr to halt the tribal vendetta, suggesting that splinter groups were developing within his militia.

The spread of revenge killings among Shias in their southern heartland has opened a new and ominous front as American forces struggle to control insurgent and sectarian bloodshed to the north _ especially in Baghdad.

In the capital, the US military reported that a soldier was listed as missing Monday night and that American and Iraqi forces were scouring the area where he was last seen. The missing soldier is an Army translator, and the initial report is that he may have been abducted, said a military official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information was not cleared for release.

[Dhalgren]

1. So US soldiers are subject to abductions, now? Jesus! What next?

The only way this murderous mess will ever end is if the troops stand down. Soldiers have just got to say, "No". The American public doesn't care enough about the soldiers to make this stop, so the soldiers are going to have to do it themselves. As a people, we have failed our country, our world, our children, ourselves and now the troops. USA - "Home of the I don't give a fuck unless it somehow ties into my mind-numbing religious superstitions, then I'm red-faced and slobbering for action citizens." Fuck...