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| In Iraq’s Sectarian Violence, a Show of Each Side’s Worst | In Iraq’s Sectarian Violence, a Show of Each Side’s Worst |
| (2 months later) | |
| BAGHDAD — Sectarian violence in Iraq on Monday showed both sides in the conflict at their brutal worst, as Iraqi police officers were reported to have killed scores of Sunni insurgent prisoners along a highway in the south, and militants in the north turned over the bodies of 15 Shiite civilians they had killed, including women and children, only to bomb the cemetery during their funerals, according to one account. | |
| In a third episode without clear sectarian links, a family of six, including three children, was found fatally shot in Tarmiya, a Sunni area in Baghdad Province north of the capital. There was no confirmation about who was behind their deaths. | In a third episode without clear sectarian links, a family of six, including three children, was found fatally shot in Tarmiya, a Sunni area in Baghdad Province north of the capital. There was no confirmation about who was behind their deaths. |
| The killings of the Sunni prisoners, all of whom had been arrested on terrorism charges but had not been convicted, were reported near Hilla, a town south of Baghdad, and represented the second such episode in less than a week. In Baquba last week, 44 Sunni prisoners were killed in their cells, and the authorities asserted that insurgents killed them by bombing the police station, although most were shot to death. And the killing of Shiite civilians near the northern city of Kirkuk was one of a series of recent episodes in which the extremists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria deliberately killed civilians or unarmed prisoners simply because they were Shiites. ISIS espouses an extreme version of Sunni Islam that considers all Shiites to be apostates who should be killed. | The killings of the Sunni prisoners, all of whom had been arrested on terrorism charges but had not been convicted, were reported near Hilla, a town south of Baghdad, and represented the second such episode in less than a week. In Baquba last week, 44 Sunni prisoners were killed in their cells, and the authorities asserted that insurgents killed them by bombing the police station, although most were shot to death. And the killing of Shiite civilians near the northern city of Kirkuk was one of a series of recent episodes in which the extremists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria deliberately killed civilians or unarmed prisoners simply because they were Shiites. ISIS espouses an extreme version of Sunni Islam that considers all Shiites to be apostates who should be killed. |
| As such episodes increase, it becomes ever harder for the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government to make peace with Sunnis and Kurds, in order to make common cause against the insurgents. ISIS, for its part, has made no secret of its intention to provoke a sectarian war, hoping that government killings of Sunnis will drive more Sunnis to its side. | As such episodes increase, it becomes ever harder for the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government to make peace with Sunnis and Kurds, in order to make common cause against the insurgents. ISIS, for its part, has made no secret of its intention to provoke a sectarian war, hoping that government killings of Sunnis will drive more Sunnis to its side. |
| The latest prisoner killings took place along a highway about 25 miles south of Hilla. According to four security sources, none of whom wanted to discuss what happened on the record for fear of punishment, the police were escorting about 70 prisoners from a detention center run by the counterterrorism police in Hilla to a prison farther south because they believed ISIS planned to break them out. | The latest prisoner killings took place along a highway about 25 miles south of Hilla. According to four security sources, none of whom wanted to discuss what happened on the record for fear of punishment, the police were escorting about 70 prisoners from a detention center run by the counterterrorism police in Hilla to a prison farther south because they believed ISIS planned to break them out. |
| ISIS has a record of successful prison breaks, including at Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad last year, when it freed 800 prisoners, many of them its own activists. | ISIS has a record of successful prison breaks, including at Abu Ghraib outside Baghdad last year, when it freed 800 prisoners, many of them its own activists. |
| Police officers escorting their buses decided to stop them and exact vengeance for ISIS’s claim that it had killed 1,700 Iraqi soldiers on June 15, one official said. | Police officers escorting their buses decided to stop them and exact vengeance for ISIS’s claim that it had killed 1,700 Iraqi soldiers on June 15, one official said. |
| Another said: “All those prisoners were criminals and involved in killings and explosions, and most of them were Al Qaeda or ISIS leaders. They should have been executed long ago.” | Another said: “All those prisoners were criminals and involved in killings and explosions, and most of them were Al Qaeda or ISIS leaders. They should have been executed long ago.” |
| “No one told them to do that,” said a police officer in Hilla. “They just believed that those prisoners will not be sentenced or their crimes taken seriously, so they simply killed them.” | “No one told them to do that,” said a police officer in Hilla. “They just believed that those prisoners will not be sentenced or their crimes taken seriously, so they simply killed them.” |
| Another said the prisoners would have been released by Iraq’s corrupt and incompetent judicial system. There were varying accounts of the number of victims, with official sources giving numbers from 69 to 73. | Another said the prisoners would have been released by Iraq’s corrupt and incompetent judicial system. There were varying accounts of the number of victims, with official sources giving numbers from 69 to 73. |
| But the governor of Hilla, Sadiq al-Sultani, insisted that ISIS had attacked the prison convoy, killing 15 of the prisoners. The rest, he said, were safely taken to the other prison in Qasim. The supposed attack took place on a major highway in an area where ISIS rarely operates. | But the governor of Hilla, Sadiq al-Sultani, insisted that ISIS had attacked the prison convoy, killing 15 of the prisoners. The rest, he said, were safely taken to the other prison in Qasim. The supposed attack took place on a major highway in an area where ISIS rarely operates. |
| That account was contradicted by Hassan Fada’am, a member of the provincial council in Hilla, the capital of Babil Province, who said ISIS attacked the convoy, killing the prisoners in the buses but not the police escorting them because they were in armored vehicles. He put the dead at 60 of the 85 prisoners. | That account was contradicted by Hassan Fada’am, a member of the provincial council in Hilla, the capital of Babil Province, who said ISIS attacked the convoy, killing the prisoners in the buses but not the police escorting them because they were in armored vehicles. He put the dead at 60 of the 85 prisoners. |
| In the other serious episode, involving Shiite civilians in a village south of Kirkuk, there were conflicting accounts from witnesses and officials on the killings. Thirty people were kidnapped last week from the Shiite Turkmen village by ISIS members, according to Mohammed Mehdi al-Bayati, a former member of Parliament from the area. He said militants returned the bodies of half of them, including some women and children, after negotiations with local elders. | In the other serious episode, involving Shiite civilians in a village south of Kirkuk, there were conflicting accounts from witnesses and officials on the killings. Thirty people were kidnapped last week from the Shiite Turkmen village by ISIS members, according to Mohammed Mehdi al-Bayati, a former member of Parliament from the area. He said militants returned the bodies of half of them, including some women and children, after negotiations with local elders. |
| “We still have 15 people missing, and no one has an idea about their fate,” he said. | “We still have 15 people missing, and no one has an idea about their fate,” he said. |
| But a witness from the village, and Kurdish pesh merga officials in Kirkuk, said that ISIS attacked the cemetery as families were burying their dead, and that at least four people, all pesh merga fighters guarding the burial site, were killed. | But a witness from the village, and Kurdish pesh merga officials in Kirkuk, said that ISIS attacked the cemetery as families were burying their dead, and that at least four people, all pesh merga fighters guarding the burial site, were killed. |
| In the third outbreak of violence, in Tarmiya, it was not clear who was responsible for the deaths of the family of six, including two girls, 10 and 12, a 17-year-old boy, their parents and an uncle. | In the third outbreak of violence, in Tarmiya, it was not clear who was responsible for the deaths of the family of six, including two girls, 10 and 12, a 17-year-old boy, their parents and an uncle. |
| Shiite militiamen have been active in the area, which is on the road to the frontlines with extremists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but the father of the family was a member of the Sunni Awakening, a pro-government group. That made him a potential ISIS target as well, according to a security official at the Interior Ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity as a matter of official policy. | Shiite militiamen have been active in the area, which is on the road to the frontlines with extremists of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but the father of the family was a member of the Sunni Awakening, a pro-government group. That made him a potential ISIS target as well, according to a security official at the Interior Ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity as a matter of official policy. |