ANBAR, Iraq, March 5, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – The Sunni clans in Al-Anbar province have ordered protection for Shiite families in the predominantly Sunni cities from potential tit-for-tat reprisals in view of anti-Sunni attacks and killings by Shiite militants after the bombing of a celebrated Shiite shrine.

"The agreement stipulates protection of [Shiite] neighborhoods and bans assaults under any circumstances," a local resident of Abu Ghraib district told IslamOnline.net Sunday, March 5, on condition of anonymity.

The agreement is binding to all parties, he added.

Tribal chieftains agreed to provide the protection to the Shiite families in response to a call by the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), the highest Sunni body in Iraq, IOL's correspondent says.

"After attacks on Sunni mosques in Baghdad and other areas, some Shiite families fled their homes in the predominantly Sunni Abu Ghraib fearing an angry reaction from the Sunni majority," the source added.

Sheikh Mahmoud Issa Al-Karbouli told the Iraqi Al-Sabah newspaper on Saturday, March 4, that more than 700 young men have voluntarily cordoned off Shiite areas in the western city of Ramadi to protect Shiite families.

"The raised banners calling for national unity and to nip in the bud the deadly sectarian sedition," he said.

Up to 300 people, mostly Sunnis, were killed in indiscriminate attacks on Sunni mosques and people triggered by the February bombing of the Imam Ali Al-Hadi shrine, one of Iraq's most revered Shiite places in the northern city of Samarra.

The Sunnis have further accused Shiite-based militias of orchestrating most of the violence against their community and running government-sanctioned death squads.

The anti-Sunni attacks prompted regional and international warnings of a looming civil war in Iraq, which would destabilize the entire Middle East.

The respected International Crisis Group (ICG) said last month only the introduction of significant changes to the Iraqi "sectarian" constitution and disbanding government-condoned militias can help ward off a deadly civil war.

The Iraqi interior minister ordered all militias in Iraq on Saturday be disbanded and promised militiamen government jobs.

The same source categorically denied reports that entire Shiite families in the Sunni city of Fallujah were forced into a panicky flight.

"Fallujah residents were also urged by the tribal chieftains and mosque preachers to protect the Shiite areas in the city," he told IOL.

Sunni residents were also quick to provide protection to the Shiite families in Ramadi to head off possible communal clashes.

Earlier this month, the AMS reassured Shiites who deserted their homes and urged them come back.

Sheikh Abdul Salam Al-Qubaisi, the prominent Sunni scholar, also called on Shiite families to reciprocate the Sunni initiative.

Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr has ordered protection for Sunni mosques in predominantly Shiites areas.

On February 25, Shiite scholars from the Sadr and Khalsi schools met with Sunni leaders in Baghdad's premier Sunni mosque Abu Hanifa, where they both prayed under the leadership of Qubaisi.