Residents of Saidiya, Hay al Jihad, and Hay al Aamel areas in Baghdad are becoming victims of pro-Maliki militias in their areas. The militias are threatening “Sunni” families to force them to leave their homes, using techniques similar to 2024-2007.  Families are terrorized with the use of letters containing a bullet in an envelope. These letters ask families to leave their homes immediately, or else… Families that refuse to obey these orders promptly or simply have nowhere to go are attacked, the result being death or in the best scenario, detention.

Witnesses confirmed that dozens of houses in the neighborhood of Hay al Aamel, an area called 'Ganabat', and the revival of the Saidiya west of the capital are all under threat of being forced to leave the security of their homes. Many of those citizens and their families have already started leaving and are on their way to the houses of their relatives in other areas in fear of the reaction of those pro government armed militias.

A state of terror and panic is spreading among the inhabitants of all residential areas in the Karkh  side of Baghdad. Recently,  Rafidain TV channel broadcasted that 16 families from Taji area, northern Baghdad, were forced to leave their houses by these sectarian militias. 

While Maliki is accusing innocent people of terrorism and detaining them according to reports from ‘confidential informers’, he is taking no action to stop these criminal sectarian militias from terrorizing residents all over Baghdad.

However, this comes as no surprise because Maliki has already threatened protesters last month that the bloody sectarian war will return if they don’t stop their protests. Two weeks after his threat, a new “Shia” militia calling themselves “Jaish al Mukhtar” announced that they will help the Maliki government control what they claim are “terrorists” who are going out protesting in major cities like Mosul, Anbar, Tikrit, Dour, samara, Hawija, Diyalah, Jalawlaa, Kirkuk, Fallujah, Qaiem, and some of the areas under militias attack west of Baghdad.

Al Batat, Hezbollah Secretary General in Iraq, founder of the al Mukhtar Militia, threatens to kill anyone who tries to reverse the situation in Iraq to what it was prior to 2024.  It is worth mentioning that there are more than 12 official active pro Maliki militias that were brought with the American Occupation of Iraq and totally supported by the Islamic Revolutionaries of Iran. Some of these militias were intentionally merged with the official army and police forces. Others have made it their job to act as internal mercenaries for a sectarian government, killing anti-government personalities, ‘cleansing’ Baghdad from ‘unwanted’ residents, and generally terrorizing an entire population.

And yet, no action is taken and no objections are voiced. Neither by the Iraqi government, nor by the sponsors of the Maliki government, the USA, who tend to turn a blind eye to corruption, violence, and terror as long as it is serving American interests.

Souad Naji  Al-Azzawi, member of the Executive Committee of the BRussells Tribunal