Sectarian break-up of Iraq

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The sectarian break-up of Iraq is inevitable, according to senior Iraqi officials, Patrick Cockburn reported July 24, 2006, in the Independent (UK).

"'Iraq as a political project is finished,' a senior government official was quoted as saying, adding: 'The parties have moved to plan B.' He said that the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties were now looking at ways to divide Iraq between them and to decide the future of Baghdad, where there is a mixed population. 'There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into [Shia] east and [Sunni] west,' he said," Cockburn wrote. (First reported by Reuters July 21, 2006.)

"A raging sectarian conflict and an insurgency aimed at ousting foreign troops and toppling the new government is threatening to tear Iraq apart," Reuters reported in July 2006.

"Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and hundreds of thousands uprooted since a U.S.-led invasion toppled the country's leader Saddam Hussein in 2003," Reuters wrote. "Kidnappings and suicide bombings have driven out many international organisations and aid workers have been abducted and killed."

"The invasion brought an end to sanctions and paved the way for elections and a new constitution. Billions of aid dollars have poured in to rebuild the country but the dire security situation and corruption have both hampered reconstruction. ... The International Crisis Group says in a 2006 report there are fears Iraq is 'teetering on the threshold of wholesale disaster', Reuters wrote.

Dismemberment was the plan

"The US and British leaders may be getting domestic flak for their perceived mistakes in Iraq, but some observers in the Arab world see them as being quite successful - in carrying out a well-calculated plan to divide the country," Ahmed Janabi wrote June 22, 2006, for Al Jazeera.

"The debate," he wrote, "dates back to July 13, 2003, when the Iraqi Governing Council was formed under Paul Bremer, the US administrator.

"Sectarianism and ethnic extremism were strengthened in that council and various laws have since encouraged an aggressive sectarianism leading to a fierce militia war," Janabi wrote.

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