Meanwhile, the followers of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched through Iraqi cities as a show of force. As the Sunni-Shi’ite jihad escalates, it should be obvious to everyone (but isn’t) that to intervene on either side would be to aid a group that hates the U.S. and wants to destroy it.
“Sunni jihadists capture 3 pivotal Iraq locales in Saturday shootout,” by Larry Mcshane, New York Daily News, June 21, 2014:
Iraqi soldiers and local police fled from a Saturday shootout with Sunni forces, who unleashed a new offensive and seized control of three pivotal locales.
The Sunni jihadists’ capture of Rawah, on the Euphrates River, the nearby town of Anah, and the town of Qaim, on the Syrian border, marked their first seizures of territory in Anbar province, west of Baghdad.
Their gains came as thousands of weapon-toting Shiite fighters marched through Iraqi cities in a show of force. In the capital of Baghdad, roughly 20,000 heavily-armed followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr paraded with their machine guns, rocket launchers and assault rifles. His followers took to the streets in the cities of Amarah and Basra, raising the increasingly possible specter of religious war between the two Muslim sects.
Iraqi army and police personnel bailed out of Rawah as invaders linked with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an Al Qaeda splinter group, ransacked government offices Saturday, said Mayor Hussein Ali al-Moussawi.
The Sunni jihadists’ capture of Rawah, on the Euphrates River, the nearby town of Anah, and the town of Qaim, on the Syrian border, marked their first seizures of territory in Anbar province, west of Baghdad.
The town is located near an important dam in the town of Haditha, and Iraqi officials quickly dispatched about 2,000 soldiers to protect the site, according to The Associated Press.
The terrorists’ capture of Qaim, on the border of Syria and about 200 miles west of Baghdad, allowed the jihad forces to move weapons and heavy equipment freely in and out of Iraq as they ramp up their attacks.
The jihad fighters already controlled the Syrian side of the border at Qaim. The ISIS attackers, who earlier this month seized a large swath of territory along the Iraq-Syria border, were focusing on expanding their claim over Anbar province, which stretches from the capital all the way to Syria….