Gunmen kill 50 in raid on market near Baghdad

Blame and counterblame
The Shiite television station Al-Forat broadcast strident quotes from Shiites who blamed the attack on Sunni religious extremists. They expressed outrage that Sunni politicians could not rein in the militants.

The main Sunni bloc in parliament said the attack may have been retaliation for the kidnapping of seven Sunnis whose bodies were found Sunday in Mahmoudiya. The bloc accused Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces of failing to control the situation.

The events also raised doubts about the effectiveness of the U.S. strategy of handing over large areas of the country to Iraqi control, while keeping U.S. troops in reserve.

U.S. troops of the 101st Airborne Division reported hearing detonations and gunfire, the U.S. command said. But Iraqi troops are responsible for security in Mahmoudiya, and American soldiers do not intervene unless asked by the Iraqis.

Four soldiers and a former soldier from the division are accused of raping and murdering a teenage girl near Mahmoudiya on March 12. A sixth soldier is accused of failing to report the crime.

Sectarian violence persists
The Mahmoudiya attack was part of a rising tide of tit-for-tat killings and intimidation that many Iraqis fear is the prelude to civil war. The campaign of intimidation and attacks is slowly transforming Baghdad into sectarian zones under the tacit control of armed groups that protect members of their sect and drive away others.

On July 9, Shiite militiamen swept through the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Jihad in western Baghdad, dragging Sunnis from their cars and shooting them in the street. About 50 people were slain.

Faced with such massacres, Iraqis are turning to sectarian militias to protect themselves because government forces cannot. Some Sunnis, who form the backbone of the insurgency, now say privately they want American troops to remain in Iraq to protect them from Shiite militias.

Gutierrez: Iraq ‘ready for recovery’
Despite the security crisis, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez came to Baghdad Monday and signed an agreement with the Iraqis to encourage foreign investment and lay the foundation for a market economy after decades of state control.

Gutierrez said at the signing that progress in Iraq’s economy hinged on improved security.

“We are convinced that Iraq is ready for recovery,” Gutierrez said. Security is still the No. 1 challenge.”

Iraq’s economy was devastated by the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Gulf war and 13 years of crippling international sanctions, historically,

Oil is the biggest source of income for the Iraqi government, which is struggling to curb violence and restore the supply of electricity and water.

Iraqi Trade Minister Abed Falah al-Sudani hailed the pact as a milestone. “This agreement will be one of the important agreements that encourages the Iraqi economy to move from centralized economy to free economy,” he said. “Today we will start a new chapter in Iraq.”

Also Monday, the final group of Japanese troops left Iraq and arrived in Kuwait, ending Japan’s two-year humanitarian mission in southern Iraq. The rest of the Japanese contingent, which had numbered more than 600, departed over the past two weeks.

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