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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Inside an Iraqi Battleground Neighborhood
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Issue
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Nov 25, 2006 08:31pm |
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| Category | General |
| Media | Weekly News Magazine - TIME Magazine |
| News Date | Sunday, November 26, 2006 02:30:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Amid the frenzy of repopulation, mixed areas like Washash have become the hotspots for sectarian warfare
By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD
Posted Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006
The locals called it body Street, the place in Washash, a Baghdad slum on the western side of the Tigris, where the corpses would pile up. That was a few months ago. Now every road in Washash is a body street. One of the bodies appeared near the home of Ahmed Mansur. He was standing there one morning when he heard about the corpse. He joined a group of people walking together to have a look. "He was very handsome," Mansur says. "He was wearing a gold necklace and a gold ring. There was a bullet wound in his forehead." Not long after, all the Sunni families on the street left Washash. One Sunni family found Shi'ite renters and handed the house over to them quietly. The other Sunni family gave its house to Shi'ite relatives. They were the last two Sunni families on a block that now, like most of the neighborhood, is all Shi'ite.
As Iraq descends into a full-scale civil war, the face of the country is changing forever. Sectarian violence is forcing people from their homes, cleansing mixed neighborhoods and carving the country into ethnic enclaves. Since February, sectarian violence has forced more than 418,000 people to move, according to the most recent estimates by the International Organization for Migration. The real figures are probably much higher, since many go unregistered by the government or aid agencies as they find refuge with relatives, drift into makeshift camps or settle into homes previously occupied by members of another sect. |
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