Francke, What has the surge meant for Iraqis?

September 15, 2007 8:06 am henrymunsonjr Iraq

Rend al-Rahim Franke, Seven months into the surge: What does it mean for Iraqis?, USIP, September 2007 (working draft)

To the distress of the Sunnis, Baghdad is increasingly a Shi’a city, either

because Sunnis are being pushed out or are choosing to leave, and the geographic area

of the capital in which Sunnis are now a majority and feel safe is shrinking (for example,

parts of Saydiya, a fierce battleground between Sunni and Shi’a militias, are now

controlled by the Shi’a)…. While the control exercised by the Shi’a reduces

sectarian killing, it is a source of extreme anxiety to the Sunni political groups, who fear

above all the loss of the capital.

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