Personnel from the Iraqi security forces detain suspected militants of the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, during a raid operation in Jurf al-Sakhar, in this May 27, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Mushtaq Muhammed/Files
Special Report: Inside Iraq's 'Killing Zones' -- Reuters
(Reuters) - Shi'ite militias and Iraqi security forces, engaged in an all-or-nothing struggle with radical Sunni group Islamic State, are blasting the Sunni farmlands that encircle Baghdad with heavy weapons. Military officers call their target areas in the rural belt "killing zones."
"In these parts, there are no civilians," said Lieutenant Colonel Haider Mohammed Hatem, deputy commander of the armed forces around Abu Ghraib, just west of the capital. "Everyone in these killing zones we consider Islamic State."
The death zones now scar the more than 200 km-long (124 mile) Baghdad Belt, as it is commonly known. Since January, at least 83,000 people, the vast majority of them Sunnis, have abandoned their homes in the rural area around the capital, according to the International Rescue Committee, an aid group. The figure could be higher, but is impossible to confirm because of the poor security situation.
Read more ....
My Comment: If this report is true .... and I suspect that it is .... there is no longer any hope for any Sunni - Shiite reconciliation in Iraq. This is a sectarian war to the finish.