(Times - UK) - About 60 percent of Iraqis are Shia, and they have been largely excluded from power and denied the fruits of the country's lucrative oil-smuggling trade because Saddam and his ruling clique are Sunni Muslims, a grouping that counts for 18 percent of the population. Saddam has ruthlessly repressed this volatile majority, murdering one cleric after another and ordering his largely Sunni Republican Guard to crush any hint of rebellion. In 1991, the Republican Guard perpetrated a bloodbath in the city of Karbala, ploughing through the bazaars in T72 tanks emblazoned with the slogan "No Shias After Today."
2002-10-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive