FEATURE-When Iraq death squads come calling: a family story

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC348473.htm

BAGHDAD, March 14 (Reuters) - It didn't take long for the wave of sectarian hatred that washed over Iraq last month to hit the Baghdad home of the Samarrai family -- just a few hours, in fact, before black-clad militiamen came calling.

Screaming for revenge for the bombing at dawn that day of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra, about 40 gunmen burst into the villa of the Sunni Muslim family who, as their name suggests, have roots in the mainly Sunni city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Brandishing Kalashnikov rifles, the men dragged Ziad al- Samarrai, 39, from the house, kicked and punched him in front of his mother, threw him into the boot of a car and sped away.

Then things got worse. The band returned half an hour later, neighbours said, to the religiously mixed district of eastern Baghdad where the Samarrai family has lived for 20 years.

They pursued Ziad's 60-year-old mother to the home of a Shi'ite neighbour where she had sought refuge and shot her dead.

[arcane1]

why does the name "Negroponte" come to mind?

:shrug:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. May those left be comforted

This is terrible, terrible! Why must people always think only of differences? What difference do differences really make? Qur'an says that you do not kill your brother Muslims-in fact, you kill only in self defense, or if a group denies you the right to practice your religion. You NEVER kill innocents, and this specifically includes women and the elderly.