Perspective: Shiite struggle in Iraq spills over area

BAGHDAD, Iraq — When Ziad Saleh, a Sunni Arab, married a Shiite woman 17 months ago, it did not cross his mind that their mixed marriage would bring risk of death.

But these days, love between Sunnis and Shiites requires extraordinary caution. Saleh and Rawaa al-Saadi, both 28, live in Saleh's house in the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah. When al-Saadi visits her parents in a Shiite area across Baghdad, Saleh drives her to a neutral zone between the two, where one of her brothers picks her up.

"We sometimes feel like we have done something really wrong, rather than just being an ordinary married couple with a child," said Saleh, bitterly.

The fall of Saddam Hussein was supposed to have heralded a joyous era, freeing Iraqis from decades of oppression that touched everyone _ Shiite Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds alike.

Instead, the nation has been torn apart by an ancient divide.

The creation in Iraq of the only Shiite-run Arab government, toppling long Sunni dominance, has released long-restrained hatred between Islam's two main sects. Battles between Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias are claiming scores of victims every day and forcing tens of thousands to flee the country.

And while the main battle has been in Iraq, Shiite power has become a dominant issue across the Middle East, and Sunni Arab leaders in Jordan and Saudi Arabia are expressing growing concern about Shiite power in the Arab lands, often backed by non-Arab, Shiite Iran.

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