LATIFIYAH Hundreds of Shias are fleeing towns in lawless areas south of the Iraqi capital where killings and kidnappings by a ragtag army of Sunni extremists and tribal gangs have torn mixed communities. Haidar used to live in Latifiyah, a small town in the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which earned itself an infamous reputation as one of the most violent in Iraq.
His father would eke out a meagre income by ministering to the needs of the most devout Shias who walk southbound through the town on the pilgrimage route to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. “They killed my father and then my brother, in front of our house. Just for being Shias,” says the 28-year-old.
“I continued to receive death threats after that. Our house is right next to a mosque where Wahhabis come for prayers, so I moved with my wife and two children to Najaf,” he explains. The Triangle of Death, which includes flashpoint towns such as Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah and Yusufiyah, is according to unofficial estimates almost evenly split between Shias and Sunnis.
The area, which lies in the heart of ancient Mesopotamia and is Iraq’s bread basket, saw its religious make-up transformed under Saddam Hussein who populated it with clans from his Sunni minority. Shias are now essentially concentrated in a smattering of small towns while the region’s largest farms and countryside are controlled by Sunni families.
The post-invasion period saw Sunni extremists, Saddam loyalists and tribes following the rigid Wahhabi brand of Islam stock up on abandoned weapons and run amok in a region which spun out of the control of both Iraqi and US forces. Abdel Hussein is a Shia cleric.
“Last year, I started making plans with my brother to build a mosque in Yusufiyah. The next thing I knew, our names were all over town on placards calling for our death.”
“I didn’t take it seriously but I should have. My brother was shot dead on our street and soon after, my seven-year-old son was abducted,” says the 50-year-old.
“I had to gather all my clan and threaten the Wahhabis. More bloodshed was narrowly averted and my son was released, but it’s become unbearable so I just moved to Sadr City,” a sprawling Shia slum in Baghdad.
Adam, 34, fled from Latifiyah after being threatened for refusing to cooperate with insurgents in planning anti-US attacks.
Abdallah, a 42-year-old farmer, took his eight children to Karbala after being accused of being a member of the Badr Organisation, a group that replaced the powerful militia of the country’s top Shia party.
All those interviewed by AFP refused to give their full names, fearing for their lives even in the relative safety of their non-mixed Shia exile.
“Hundreds of families have left this area in recent weeks and months,” says Salah Abdelrazzaq, a spokesman for the Shia Waqf, or religious endowment.
“The same phenomenon is happening in other traditionally mixed areas such as Salman Pak and Madain (further east) or Baghdad’s (southern) Dura neighbourhood,” he explains. —AFP
