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The Daily Trials of Displaced Iraqi Sunnis Thousands Face Death Threats, Kidnapping and Ostracism in Baghdad

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The Daily Trials of Displaced Iraqi Sunnis Thousands Face Death Threats, Kidnapping and Ostracism in Baghdad 8 June 12, 2015 News & Analysis Iraq The daily trials of displaced Iraqi Sunnis Thousands face death threats, kidnapping and ostracism in Baghdad Omar Hejab waves across the capital, where the government, dominated by the rival Baghdad Shia Muslim sect, warned that ISIS could advance towards Baghdad. eaflets warn: “Go home or Iraqi President Fuad Masum told face the consequences.” The Arab Weekly in an interview The message is targeted days after Ramadi fell that Baghdad at the 1 million Iraqis who was “certainly in danger” from the have fled to the capital ISIS jihadist militants. LBaghdad after Islamic State (ISIS) Masum, a Kurd, said the mainly militants seized large parts of the Shia Iraqi army and its allied mi- north and west of the country in the litias planned to defend the capi- last year. Baghdad residents are re- tal on the banks of the Tigris river luctant to mix with people they see while mounting a counteroffensive as aliens and fear some of them may to drive ISIS out of Ramadi, the be linked to ISIS. Landlords lease provincial capital of the vast desert apartments for triple the price of- province of Anbar, which borders fered to locals. Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The population of Baghdad has Ramadi’s fall to ISIS was a setback swelled in recent weeks by 15% to the Iraqi army and a blow to US- to 8.4 million, according to Iraq’s backed efforts to drive the militants Ministry of Immigration and Dis- out of the large parts of western and placed, mainly with people from northern Iraq, in Tikrit and Mosul, Anbar province after Ramadi, the which the extremist group overran provincial capital, fell last month to in a surprise offensive in June 2014. coordinated attacks by more than a While the Iraqi army recaptured dozen ISIS suicide car bombers fol- Tikrit on April 1st, following a lowed by an assault by the extreme month-long battle for the home- jihadist group’s ground forces. town of fallen Iraqi dictator Saddam “This is not the Baghdad I know,” Hussein, Mosul — Iraq’s second larg- sighed Shatha Mohammed, 59, a est city — remains under ISIS rule. Displaced families taking shelter in Baghdad mosque. mother of six. She said she fled with Making things worse, media re- her 18-member family, including ports circulated about the alleged her daughters-in-law and grand- abduction by Shia militias of dozens decided to stay home and not ven- away. the street.” “They beat me and my children, hours before ISIS stormed Sunni Iraqis displaced from Ramadi ture out for any reason.” “Go home, we don’t want terror- three sons and refused to allow us Ramadi on May 17th as the Iraqi and other cities in Anbar, who were Another 30-year-old Anbar native ists here,” read a banner hung on a take any of our belongings,” he told military garrison collapsed and fled. later found dead. in Baghdad, who identified him- building in the Bayaa neighbour- The Arab Weekly. Adding to their isolation by Bagh- self as Ammar, said security forces hood. Another in the Aamel district Rents for the displaced are usu- The population of dad’s residents, Iraqi lawmaker harass him after they see his home- warned, “Sunnis are not welcome ally at least double that asked of Baghdad has swelled Hakem al-Zameli, said in televised town and name on his national here.” Baghdad residents, said Ahmed comments that 1,000 families identity card. A 47-year-old Sunni Iraqi police- Nusseir, 33. He said a two-bedroom in recent weeks by among those displaced from Rama- “When they see where I come man, who fled Anbar to Baghdad apartment in a middle-class Bagh- 15% to 8.4 million di were pro-ISIS, trained by the mili- from, police, army or militias make in May, said he had received death dad neighbourhood, which is usu- tant group to destabilise Baghdad. me wait for hours under the sun and threats. ally offered at $200 to Baghdad “You feel like a criminal or a thief “This was the straw that broke heat before crossing a checkpoint,” “Days after I rented an apart- residents, is rented for $600 to the here. We don’t dare to leave the the camel’s back,” said a 29-year-old he said. “I beg and plea with them ment in central Baghdad, I was left displaced. house. My 10-year-old grandchild man displaced from Ramadi, who to let go of me but they push and a note on my front door warning me “You don’t blame the landlords,” buys our food from a nearby gro- asked to be identified as Moham- shove me, calling me names. to leave or face the consequences,” he said. “They don’t want to rent cery store. Our neighbours give us med. “When people know that I am “It is humiliating.” said the man, identified only as Abu out to the displaced for fear that dirty looks whenever we open our from Ramadi, having heard what In the purely Shia-populated Zohra. “I had hoped they’d forget their property may be blown up, or door,” she told The Arab Weekly, the MP said, they just turn their Bayaa neighbourhood and the near- about me but they didn’t. Three destroyed by the militias.” breaking into tears. backs to me,” Mohammed told The by Aamel district on the capital’s days later, my front door was blown Predominantly Sunni Ramadi is Arab Weekly. south-western and western edge, up in a blast, men in military uni- Omar Hejab, a pseudonym used for a key city on Baghdad’s western “But there are the others who leaflets threaten Sunnis from Anbar, form stormed into the house, threw safety reasons, is an Arab Weekly edge. Its fall to ISIS sent shock- threaten to hurt me physically, so I Mosul and other provinces to keep me, my wife and nine children in contributor in Baghdad. Iraq: In the shadow of ‘Abu Azrail’ Viewpoint Beirut largely supported by the majority violence. Kasasbeh, who was burned alive in Sunnis against the regime of Presi- Members of Abu Azrail’s group, Abu Azrail a cage by ISIS militants in January. raqi fighter Abu Azrail — in dent Bashar Assad, a member of the Imam Ali Brigade, have posed Human Rights Watch has Mona Alami English “the Father of the the minority Alawite community in videos with the severed heads of has come to accused Shia militias of being in- Angel of Death” — has been which is considered to be an off- their enemies in Saladin province. symbolise the volved in ”possible war crimes” in depicted by television shoot of Shia Islam. The bloodshed The organisation is led by Shebl al- polarisation Sunni areas such as Diyala prov- station France 24 as “a has spilled into Iraq, inflaming al- Zaidi, described as one of the most ince where civilians are believed to vigilante hero, one man ready fierce religious passions and vicious sectarian leaders in the within Iraqi have been killed by the groups. Iagainst the terror organisation of triggering atrocities on both sides now-disbanded Mahdi Army of the society These days, monstrous crimes the Islamic State (ISIS)”. of the sectarian divide. radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. are not the preserve of ISIS or Shia In spite of the accolades show- Abu Azrail is a stark reminder The Imam Ali Brigade has been groups alone because violence ered on the Shia militiaman who of another Shia militant known as also linked to a video, which has been “normalised” among all has “Rambo” status in Iraq, he is Abu Deraa, once dubbed as a Shia recently went viral, that shows its segments of Iraqi society. An ABC another face of the infernal cycle in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the brutal fighters in the al-Karma district of investigation recently unveiled evi- which two concepts of martyrdom Jordanian leader of ISIS’s mother predominantly Sunni Anbar prov- dence of atrocities committed by are fighting in the name of God. organisation, al-Qaeda in Iraq, who ince abusing what appears to be the Iraqi military with photographs The motto Ila Tahin (ISIS), Grind was renowned for his savagery the lifeless body of a man who has showing severed heads attached to you to Dust has made Abu Azrail until he was killed in a US air strike been strung up over an open fire. the hoods of army Humvees. One famous across Iraq. He can be seen in June 2006. The group denies any connec- photo showed a lifeless body being on videos standing beside a rocket Abu Deraa sometimes favoured tion to the fighters but the images tossed from a tower. launcher with his two high-tech hand-held electric drills to dis- remain a horrifying reminder of Someone identified as “Sunni mobile phones or working out at a patch his victims, who not only the killing of shot-down Jordanian Tribes” recently proudly uploaded Baghdad gym. included high-value targets but fighter pilot Lieutenant Muath al- on Twitter pictures of alleged tribal In spite of his apparent combat also hundreds of ordinary Sunni fighter Hassan Obeidi, dubbed “the successes, Abu Azrail has come to citizens. Daesh Burner,” standing next to symbolise the polarisation within On both sides of Iraq’s religious the body of an ISIS fighter envel- Iraqi society where identities are divide, jihadists have relied on oped in flames. increasingly defined by religion similar arguments to justify what Both Shia and Sunni jihadists instead of nationality and have they see as a never-ending war of who seem to take pride in such been exacerbated by ISIS’s opera- conviction.
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