Sunni, Shiite factions carve up Baghdad

Coaltion presence in 2004 Baghdad (via Global Security Org). Present population of Baghdad is estimated at 5 to 6 million, about 1/4 of Iraq's population.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four years ago this was a city where people mixed freely — where, in most parts of town, no one cared if a neighborhood was majority Sunni or Shiite. Loyalty to Saddam Hussein was more important than religious identity.

But now a battle for Baghdad is well under way between the two major Muslim sects. Death squads are slaughtering people daily, and an estimated 160,000 Iraqis have fled their homes — mostly here in the capital.

Out of that violence, a new but not better city is emerging. Many Iraqis fear that the result will be a Sunni west and a Shiite east, with the broad Tigris River snaking through the middle as the sectarian boundary.

Read the rest at MSNBC.

Related Link: Wikipedia: Baghdad