Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Tribal mosaic confuses counter-insurgency

Purging the town of insurgents is complicated by a complex tapestry of ethnicities and religions and tribes -- 82 of them. About 95 percent of the town is ethnically Turkmen, with about 5 percent Kurdish. 75 percent of the Turkmen are Sunni and 25 percent are Shia. The Kurds are almost entirely Sunni.