Morning Star.png Iraq: MPs Walk Out Over Sectarian Killings James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 20 January 2016 Iraq's parliament was suspended yesterday after Sunni MPs and ministers staged a boycott over sectarian attacks on Sunni Muslim communities. Both members of opposition parties and the ruling coalition boycotted parliament and cabinet meetings in protest at the killings and arson attacks in the town of Muqdadiya in Diyala province, north-east of Baghdad. MPs Raad al-Dahlaki and Nahida al-Daini from Diyala province said 43 people, including a Sunni imam, had been killed and nine mosques firebombed by Shi'ite mobs in the last week. The outbreak of sectarian violence came after twin Islamic State (Isis) suicide attacks on a cafe frequented by Shi'ite militiamen killed at least 24 people and wounded 52. Last week the International Federation of Journalists condemned the murder by masked gunmen of two journalists working for opposition Sunni-owned Sharqiya TV as they were returning from reporting the violence in the town. Isis has played on discontent among Sunni Muslim communities in north-west Iraq, who have lost political power and wealth to the southern Shi'ite majority since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government has enlisted Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish militias to fight the militants. Touring Muqdadiya yesterday he denounced the use of force by all non-state actors."We consider any weapon outside this framework as a weapon (benefiting) the terrorist Isis gangs," Mr Abadi said. The sudden Isis take-over of northern Iraq in 2014 was aided by the anti-occupation Naqshbandi Army, led by former regime leader Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri - the King of Clubs in the US government's notorious deck of cards portraying most-wanted Iraqis. The red-haired rebel leader reportedly turned against the extremists in an audio recording released in May last year - a month after the Iraqi government claimed to have killed him in an air strike. The UN has reported a sharp rise in civilian deaths since the rise of Isis in 2014. At least 18,802 civilians were killed and another 36,245 were wounded in Iraq between the start of 2014 and October 31 of last year, yesterday's UN report said. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-1886-Iraq-MPs-walk-out-over-sectarian- killings#.Vp98Evl9600> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-1886-Iraq-MPs-walk-out-over-sectarian-k illings#.Vp98Evl9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
