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| Iraq |
| Iraq Army Prepares to Move into Gunmen-Held Town |
| 2013-04-26 |
| [An Nahar] Iraq's army deployed reinforcements around Sulaiman Bek and was preparing Thursday to move into the northern town, a day after it was seized by a group of gunnies, official sources said. Also Thursday, a front man for now-dispersed protesters near the town of Hawijah in northern Iraq, where the latest wave of violence began on Tuesday, vowed to seek Dire Revenge™ for a "massacre" at the protest site, where festivities killed 53 people. The unidentified gunnies swarmed into Sulaiman Bek on Wednesday after deadly fighting with the security forces, who pulled back in the face of the offensive as residents fled. "We withdrew tactically so we can work on clearing the area completely, after we knew that the residents had left," a high-ranking army officer told Agence La Belle France Presse. "We will clean the region corner by corner, and we will not allow any attack against the safety of citizens," the officer said. Shalal Abdul Baban, a local administrative official responsible for the area, said that gunnies were still in complete control of the town but that the army was deploying reinforcements on its outskirts. The attack on Sulaiman Bek came amid a wave of violence, much of it festivities and attacks involving security forces, protesters and their supporters, that has left more than 120 people dead. The violence began on Tuesday when security forces moved in against anti-government protesters near the town of Hawijah in northern Iraq, sparking festivities that left 53 people dead. The military said the operation was aimed at the Naqshbandiya Army, a band of Sunni gunnies it said had infiltrated the ranks of the anti-government protesters. The deadly fighting near Hawijah sparked a wave of Dire Revenge™ attacks in five Sunni-majority provinces that continued into Wednesday, and included heavy fighting in Salaheddin province that saw the gunnies take Sulaiman Bek. |
| Posted by:Fred |