Troops try to curb warfare in Balad, north of Baghdad

U.S. troops in Balad in June 2003, following an insurgent ambush. The town was returned to Iraqi control amidst great fanfare one month ago.

BAGHDAD — U.S. and Iraqi troops sought to restore order Tuesday to a lush farming district north of the capital where more than 100 Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims have disappeared or been brutally killed in sectarian fighting in recent days.

Thirteen carloads of Shiites from the town of Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, were reported Tuesday to have been kidnapped the previous night. Their fate was unknown.

U.S. military officials tallied at least 63 killed in fighting between Shiite and Sunni villagers around Balad since Saturday. Witnesses and police gave higher estimates of fatalities. The violence has been notable for its character of open warfare and its overtly sectarian targeting.

In addition to the Iraqi dead, four U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday morning when their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said, disclosing no further details. At least 63 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq this month.

In Balad, the sectarian fighting first broke out Friday, when at least 19 Shiites were kidnapped and beheaded. The next day, Shiite militiamen abducted and executed dozens of Sunni residents, occasionally pulling people from their cars and setting fire to their bodies. Sunnis then began firing rockets into the mostly Shiite town, killing at least half a dozen people.

Men in police uniforms seized unused Iraqi police checkpoints near Balad on Monday and Tuesday night, according to witnesses and security officials.

Witnesses also reported that large groups of men — identified by locals as Sunni Arab insurgents — carrying AK-47s were flooding Sunni Arab areas east of Balad, positioning rocket launchers and mortars in the villages outside the town. The men demanded identification from passing drivers.

"They stopped us," one Shiite resident of the area said by telephone. "They asked me, 'Are you Sunni or Shiite?' I told them I'm a member of the [Sunni] Mashadani tribe, and showed them a fake identification card."

Four mortar rounds landed in Balad on Monday night and early Tuesday, killing one person and injuring four, a hospital official said.

The provincial governor called Tuesday for an immediate tribal summit. Security forces also sealed off the nearby Shiite town of Dujayl in an effort to prevent a similar outbreak.

U.S. forces began providing assistance to Iraqi military units at the request of Iraqi civic and military leaders.

Reat the rest at the LA Times

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