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A Sunni Iraqi girl carries her belonging as she arrives at a refuge camp.
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BAGHDAD — Sunni families have fled their homes in Baghdad's predominantly Sunni Jihad neighborhood after Shiite militiamen killed at least 50 fellow ones in the latest gruesome sectarian attack in the US occupied country.
"What have I done wrong? What crime have my children committed?" cried a terrified mother.
"As you can see, I only grabbed a bag with some clothes for my children," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Saturday, July 15.
"I couldn't take beds or more bags since we were fleeing on foot."
At least 50 Sunnis were killed by masked Shiite gunmen who stormed the Sunni neighborhood on July 9, set up checkpoints, entered people's houses and killed those whose identity cards marked them as Sunnis.
Immediately, the Sunni families, fearing further attacks, fled to the sanctuary of the Sunni Ibn Taymiyah mosque where refuge tents were set up by the Red Crescent.
They now sleep on the grass with no mattress or covers.
"I took my family this morning because the situation in Jihad has become untenable because of the militias," said Shihab Ahmed Hammudi, a tea seller from the neighborhood.
"Some people were killed, some were robbed and our houses were set on fire," he added.
Leave or Be Killed
Even though Iraqi and US forces have now surrounded the neighborhood, the fear remains written across the Sunni faces.
"They attacked us and told us: 'The Sunnis must leave or we will kill you," Rajiha Shakir, a mother of four.
"And when we tried to leave, they killed us on the road, saying we weren't moving fast enough," she added.
"We heard that they were hunting us to make the neighborhood entirely Shiite," Rajiha avert, calling on the government to find a solution for the displaced.
During Sunday's massacres, bodies of the Sunni victims lied in pools of blood choking the streets of the neighborhood, while families huddled in their homes without food or water.
"Saturday night, our house shook after an enormous explosion," said a Sunni woman, describing an attack on Sudani's Shiite mosque that killed seven and wounded 17.
"The next day, my husband wanted to go to work, but our neighbors dissuaded him — we found out there were armed men in the streets asking names from people walking and driving by and killing them according to their name or tribe."
According to the International Organization of Migration, there are more than 110,000 internally displaced persons in Iraq since the February bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra.
Since the bombing, Iraq has increasingly been plagued by sectarian-linked attacks.
Sunni and Shiite holy places were increasingly targeted in the aftermath.
Many Iraqis, Sunnis and Shiites, lined up in droves at state registries over the past few months, believing that name changing is the best protection.
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