Sectarian clashes grip Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Armed groups of Sunni and Shiite Muslims battled Tuesday for control of several neighborhoods in southwest Baghdad, residents of those areas reported. It was another sign that security is deteriorating in the capital and that Iraq may be moving closer to a full-fledged civil war.

Early today, an explosives-rigged bicycle detonated near an army recruiting center in southern Iraq, killing at least 12 people and wounding 28, police said. A man posing as a potential army recruit planted the bicycle bomb outside a recruiting center in downtown Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

Fighting between armed groups of Shiites and Sunnis isn’t uncommon in Baghdad, but the extent of Tuesday’s fighting was unprecedented, and it raised troubling questions about the U.S. and Iraqi government effort to bring order to the capital.

The U.S. military has been touting the effectiveness of its so-called Baghdad security plan in recent days, under which beefed-up American and Iraqi forces have cordoned off some neighborhoods and searched them in an effort to rid them of gunmen. U.S. spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said Monday that attacks in Baghdad had dropped in August and the homicide rate was down 46 percent over July.

None of the neighborhoods where fighting flared Tuesday has been part of that plan, suggesting that as U.S. and Iraqi government forces crack down in one place, violence flares in another.

There was no official version of the fighting in al Ray, Shurta Rabiyah, Ghuratan and Suwaib, which are predominantly Sunni neighborhoods. Residents said an effort by supporters of militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to seize control of the areas had triggered the fighting. An al-Sadr spokesman, while acknowledging battles, said no al-Sadr supporters were involved.

An official reached at the Interior Ministry, who refused to give his name, confirmed that fighting was taking place, but said the areas were still too dangerous for police to enter and that the ministry had no information on casualties. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the U.S. military, said he was unaware of the clashes.

Iraqi soldiers also have had recent battles with al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia. On Monday, Mahdi militiamen and Iraqi soldiers battled for hours in the town of Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad. An Iraqi army account of the fighting said 23 soldiers and 30 militiamen died. Reports said eight civilians were killed and 70 other people were wounded.