Kurds step into sectarian battle in Baghdad

[jmc247]

Source: International Herald Tribune

The Shiite mother and her son opened their door for the soldiers on night patrol. In walked the Americans, each brandishing an M-16 assault rifle. Next came the men wearing tan uniforms and carrying Kalashnikovs and looking not quite Iraqi.

They spoke Arabic with accents as thick as crude oil. "Are there problems in the neighborhood?" said their leader, Captain Sardar Hamasala. "We're here for your safety. Let us know if there are sectarian problems or other kinds of problems - Sunnis threatening Shia, Shia threatening Sunnis." The black-robed mother and her son shook their hands. The soldiers stepped back into the cool night air of western Baghdad.

"The reason why people are willing to trust the 1-3-4 is because they're Kurdish," said Captain Benjamin Morales, 28, commander of Company B of the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, the U.S. partner unit of Hamasala's company. "They don't live in the area. They don't care about Sunni or Shia."

This is quite possibly the first time since the days of Saladin, the revered 12th-century Kurdish warrior-king, that Kurdish forces have occupied swaths of Baghdad. They have been ordered to secure the streets for their historic enemies, the Arabs. He added later: "Here, they still talk about what happened 2,000 or 3,000 years ago. That's the way the Arabs think."

Read more: http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc042407EW.html

[uppityperson]

1. Kurds are now trusted to secure Baghdad? wow

[jmc247]

2. The Kurds have no great love for either the Sunnis or Shia

They do their job without acting as sectarian killers for one side or another which is more then can be said of the Iraqi police in Baghdad.

[uppityperson]

4. I know, it is that the Sunnis and Shia have no love for the Kurds and many want them gone from Iraq.

The whole thing is amazing.

[Erika]

3. So let's get out and let the Kurds solve the problem.

Sounds good. Withdraw our troops now. Kurds to the rescue.