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U.S. forces retake city to end chaos

Mainly Shiite Balad saw 95 killed in five days.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 18, 2006

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces were back patrolling the streets of the predominantly Shiite city of Balad on Tuesday after five days of sectarian slaughter killed 95 people.

Iraq's 4th Army took command of the region north of Baghdad a month ago but had been unable to stem recent attacks in Balad, where the slayings of 17 Shiite Muslim workers Friday set off revenge killings by Shiites.

Minority Sunnis, who absorbed most of the brutality in the town of 80,000 people, have been fleeing across the Tigris River in small boats to Duluiyah, a majority Sunni town, said Brig. Nebil al-Beldawi, Balad police commander.

Elsewhere in Iraq, 36 people were killed Tuesday in violent attacks and 16 more corpses were found in the capital, their hands and legs bound and bodies showing signs of torture, police reported.

Iraqi officials, particularly Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, are under intense pressure to disband Shiite militias believed responsible for most of the killings in Balad and heavy involvement in violence elsewhere.

The fighters, allied to Shiite political groups, are believed to have infiltrated the Shiite-dominated police and security forces and to be allowed freedom to attack Sunni Muslims without fear of arrest or interference.

The Interior Ministry, which runs the Iraqi police, removed two officers in charge of commando units as part of a restructuring plan announced last week.

Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the ministry's spokesman, said Maj. Gen. Rashid Filah and Maj. Gen. Mahdi Sabbih were transferred, but denied their removal was a demotion or had anything to do with militia activity.

The U.S. military symbolically handed control of parts of Salahuddin province to the Iraq military on April 15.

That region included Balad and Duluiyah.

[Last modified October 18, 2006, 06:00:37]