Mistrustful Baghdadis keep one eye open at night

BAGHDAD, Dec 7 (Reuters) - As the sun sets and residents of Baghdad's Hurriya district hurry home, Firas Hasan and his friends grab their Kalashnikov rifles and head onto the deserted streets.

The volunteers are not insurgents but members of one of dozens of armed "neighbourhood watch" groups that have appeared across the capital as areas are increasingly carved out between rival religious communities amid mounting sectarian bloodshed.
"The terrorists target us because we're Shi'ite Muslims," Hasan said. "We can't trust anyone. We've established our presence in the area by questioning strangers and stopping cars to deter these criminals."

Hasan says the group began patrolling the streets three months ago when Sunni insurgents from a nearby area drove into the district and dumped a large sack on the pavement. Inside were the remains of one of their friends who was kidnapped a day earlier.

"When we opened up the sack we found Khalil's head and chopped-up body parts inside," he recalled as he wiped the barrel of his rifle. "From then on, we knew we needed to protect ourselves so we formed this group at his funeral."

Across the Tigris river, in the mainly Sunni Adhamiya district, Abu Anas says his group of armed men is on alert for Shi'ite militiamen, especially after six bombs in nearby Sadr City killed over 200 people two weeks ago.

The attack was the deadliest since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and set Sunnis preparing for violent reprisals, which many feared would plunge Iraq into all-out civil war.

A subsequent increase in defensive measures by armed groups in different districts -- and "mortar wars" between rival communities -- fuelled new fears that the capital could be carved up into sectarian enclaves divided by front-lines.

ROOFTOP POSITIONS

"We work two six-hour shifts from six in the evening to six the following morning, we take up positions on the roofs of our houses in the second shift," Abu Anas said. "We are all volunteers but sometimes families give us some money and food."

"The area has been calm but we are always ready to attack the Mehdi Army if they come into our streets, even if they use police vehicles," he added.

Many Sunnis blame the Mehdi Army, a Shi'ite militia loyal to powerful young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, for death squad killings against their community -- which forms the backbone of an insurgency that frequently targets Shi'ite civilians.

Sadr, a former Sunni ally when he fought two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, strongly denies the accusations.

But some people have risen above sectarian tensions to help neighbours fend off militants from their own community.

Shi'ite Abu Mustafa is part of a neighbourhood watch group in the mainly Sunni Saidiya area of southern Baghdad. He was assigned to protect a Sunni mosque in his street from militias.

"On our street, we don't feel the tension you find elsewhere in Baghdad. We've been neighbours for 25 years and we feel like brothers," he said. "Besides, if I help them to guard their mosque, they won't harm me and my family."

Such armed groups also face fatal risks, especially on faultlines where hostile areas neighbour one other.

Karrar Ali, a 19-year-old Mehdi Army fighter from the heavily populated Shula area, guards the bridge separating his area from Sunni Ghazaliya with a handful of other locals. He says gunmen killed two of his friends in the past few weeks.

"My family constantly tells me to quit volunteering to be on the front-line," said Ali. "But for me the choice is simple... we either choose to live in fear or die with honour."