Sectarian clash erupts in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Intense fighting broke out between security forces and gunmen in a volatile Sunni Arab section of the capital, leaving at least three dead and terrifying residents during a battle that began during the night and extended into the daylight hours Monday.

Authorities said about 50 Sunni gunmen fought Iraq’s Shiite-dominated security forces for nine hours in the northern neighborhood of Adamiyah, forcing U.S. troops working in support of Iraqi forces to close down streets and entrances to the area.

Some residents were drawn into the clash, exchanging gunfire with Iraqi soldiers and police they believed to be members of a death squad.

The violence, with its sectarian overtones, highlighted how fractured and fearful the city has become and overshadowed a brief resumption of the trial of former leader Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants on human rights charges.

At least three people were killed and 20 others injured in the Adamiyah fighting, said Mustafa Mashhadani, a spokesman for the Muslim Scholars Association. His Sunni organization has complained in the past of abuses by security forces that allegedly are infiltrated by Shiite militias and act at times as death squads. Sunni residents of Adamiyah “are determined not to allow such forces to enter their neighborhood, so they resisted this force,” he said.

Gen. Jawad Rommi Daiani, an area police commander, drove through the streets of the Sunni neighborhood, telling residents through a loudspeaker that they were not under attack. He later appeared on state television, explaining what had happened and appealing for calm.

Inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, meanwhile, the trial of Saddam and his co-defendants continued.

A panel of handwriting experts assembled by the prosecution reported that the former leader’s signature appeared on documents allegedly ordering a 1982 campaign of reprisal and execution of 148 Shiites in the village of Dujail.

But Saddam, his co-defendants and lawyers questioned the credibility of the panel. They said the handwriting reports were conducted under the auspices of the Ministry of Interior, which many Sunnis perceive as under the control of Iranian-backed Shiite militias. Sunnis dominated in Saddam’s regime.

Elsewhere on Monday, gunmen in the capital kidnapped three engineers, employed at a local electricity plant, on their way to work. The day before, armed men wearing police uniforms and driving police vehicles abducted a dozen employees from the Al-Warkaa Investment Co. in eastern Baghdad, according to a police official.

Police also recovered 17 bodies from various areas of Baghdad, including seven found inside a Jeep Cherokee near a primary school in the troubled Dora neighborhood. Five more bodies were found in the street on the other side of the school.