Sunni Endowment Diwan announced last Monday the closure of Sunni mosques in Barah following a number of assassinations and killings during the past weeks in the second largest city of Iraq.  The office of the Diwan in Basrah stated that Sunni mosques in Basrah will only call for prayers (Adan) from the speakers of mosques and advised Sunni sect members to hold prayers at homes for the sake of saving their lives.

Saad Qusay, a very active journalist and correspondent in Basrah raised concerns some days ago about the escalated violence, stating that not even one single day goes by without witnessing an assassination or killing by militants using silencer guns. 

Targeted assassinations and killings

On 17 September an Imam of the Sunni mosque Balad Salama in the district of Abi Al-Kaseeb was assassinated, Elaph, a London-based and widely read electronic newspaper, reports. The Imam was shot dead, close to his mosque, by militants who were in a passing car in the district of Abi Al-Kaseeb, a widely Sunni populated district. Two other people from Basrah were assassinated by militias last Monday, Elaph said today. In the same district, militants kidnapped Talal Abdul-Hafed Faroq, a clerk of the Sunni Endowment Diwan, who owns a grocery shop, and killed him a while after the kidnapping, Basrah News Agency reported.

Sheikh Nateq Yasseen, an Imam and speaker of Al-Sibelyat mosque, was assassinated by militant groups. Sheikh Yasseen was a former member of the municipal council of Abo Al-Kaseeb district.

Two worshippers were targeted and got killed thereafter at the district of Al-Ma’kal in Basrah. Meanwhile, a cleric at the Sunni Endowment Diwan in Basrah was injured due to an explosion of a bombed car inside the yard of the Diwan. Abdul-Kareem Al-Kazragi, director of the Sunni Endowment Diwan of south Iraq said that a bomb was placed in a bus taking the Diwan’s employees. Luckily none of the employees was injured as they had to do overtime for auditing work and the bus exploded causing no human casualties. Mr. Al-Kazragi called for strengthening security measures for the protection of the Sunni Endowment Diwan offices.   

In the Al-Zubair district west of Basrah, militants using guns with silencers killed a worshipper close to Al-Kudairi mosque. Two brothers were kidnapped in Al-Jomhoreya quarter in Basrah by unknown militants who killed them and thrown their bodies before their house. One of the two brothers owns a shopping center, according to a security sources speaking to the Basrah News agency.  Three civilians killed and eleven others injured last Sunday when a bombed car exploded at an industrial street in Basrah. 

Displacement threat

A Basra Local Council member confirmed the news of targeting Sunnis and that threats to Sunni families in the province are being spread accusing them for being responsible for the killing of Shiites at the districts of Dyala, Mosul and outskirts of Baghdad. The threats are aimed at displacing Sunni families from their city. A group that calls itself Al-Mahdi Supporters Brigade has started, since 9 September, spreading leaflets in Basrah in which they threat to target Sunnis in the province, reported Elaph.

Threatening letter:

Text:

"And fight against the disbelievers collectively as they fight against you collectively. And know that Allah is with the righteous [who fear Him]"- Altawbah verse – Quran

This is for you, who left the principality of Imam Ali and followed Abu Bakir and Omar. You have to know very carefully that you started to kill the followers of Ahlulbayt and displace them, and you are all the same, especially in Nineveh. Be informed that your destiny in the south of Iraq, especially in Basrah, depends on the safety of the followers of Ahlulbayt*, especially those from Al-Shabak minority.

If you don’t stop killing our Shabak brothers, and continue to displace them, you will never be safe since you never stop your hostility against the followers of Ahlulbayt…

An eye for an eye, the unjust one is the one who started it .

Al-Mahdi Supporters Brigade

*The followers of Ahlulbayt: the Shia people.

Translation: Lubna Al Rudaini

Mr. Al-Kazragi said that the Imam and Sheik Abdul-Kareem Mustafa of Al-Takwa mosque in Basrah was assassinated on Teusday, 3 September, by anonymous militants after noon prayers in the Mosque. He also said that an education instructor was also assassinated. Eight Sunni families in Zubair district had to leave their homes because of death threats the families received over the phone.

Head of the Shiite Endowment Diwan, Mohamed Abod Al-Motawary condemned the targeting of Sunni religious Imams in Basrah stating that "outlaw groups target those personalities to incite sectarian tension to take back Basrah to civil war." Worth to mentions that both the Sunni and Shiite Endowments Diwans together with tribal leaders and social figures of Basrah have held a joint press conference on 4 September in which they have condemned the targeting of Imams and Sunnis in Basrah and urging governmental security organizations to protect the people and put an end to the deteriorating security conditions. Some calls were made urging tribes to protect the Sunnis in their areas and not to expose the social fabric of Basrah to the dangers of sectarian violence, Almada press service reported.

These calls from tribal leaders and social figures, for the Sunni tribes in Basrah to protect themselves as well as Sunni civilians, criticize the government for the failure of the security authorities  to protect innocent people and minorities, according to Alarab electronic newspaper based in London.

Sources

Elaph:

http://www.elaph.com/Web/news/2013/9/836802.html?entry=Iraq

Alarab electronic newspaper:

http://www.alarab.co.uk/?id=3204

Basrah News Agency:

http://www.albasrahnews.com/index.php/2013-03-05-21-25-9/4286-2013-09-16-21-58-03.html

Almada press service

http://www.almadapress.com/ar/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=17606

Source