Juan Cole, Informed Comment
September 11, 2005
Iraqi troops took the lead in the ground assault in the northern Turkmen city of Tal Afar, in an attempt by the US to showcase newly trained Iraqi army units. The problem is that they are perceived as mostly Shiite, and the Tal Afar campaign is targeting Sunni Turkmen neighborhoods. So the mayor has resigned in protest of a "sectarian" operation. Al-Hayat reports that a local Turkmen leader said that 152 civilians had been killed by "indiscriminate" fire coming from US helicopter gunships. ................
