Iraqi Shiite group says member killed ‘defending holy sites’ in Syria

[UnrepentantLiberal]

Source: AP

BAGHDAD —A member of an Iraq Shiite militant group was killed in Syria, an official with the group said Saturday, highlighting how the increasingly sectarian conflict there is drawing in its fragile neighbors that already experience unrest among religious sects.

Other Shiite militias in Iraq have acknowledged sending members to Syria, but it is the first time that the Iraqi Hezbollah has hinted that its members are fighting there.

The fighter, Afrad Mohsen al-Hemedawi, was killed while defending a Shiite holy shrine in Syria, according to the official of the Hezbollah Brigades, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the issue. The official said the man was killed on March 30 and buried on April 1.

An official statement from the group also confirmed his death.

A video posted on YouTube showed thousands of men and Shiite clerics, clad in robes and turbans, marching at al-Hemedawi’s funeral. Men carried his coffin, which was covered with red flowers and wrapped in the yellow-and-green flag emblazoned with an assault rifle that is the symbol of the Hezbollah Brigades. Young men in black uniforms and caps bearing the Hezbollah Brigades flag walked alongside. Another two men carried a large portrait of the slain fighter.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraqi-shiite-group-says-member-killed-defending-holy-sites-in-syria/2013/04/06/88ac97c2-9eb1-11e2-9219-51eb8387e8f1_story.html

[delrem]

1. Since when have people tuned into DU been unaware that the Syria war is sectarian?

Since when have people tuned into DU been unaware that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are fronts for the "friends of Syria" aka "FSA" war? And that Saudi Arabia, in particular, is the hottest point for al qaeda operations/funding? And that Saudi Arabia is the center for al qaeda and/or salafi Sunni extremism? And that Saudi Arabia is the US's #1 client state in the middle east, after which come Qatar and Bahrain in random order.

Americans can't be *that* stupid.

I refuse to believe that people tuned in, in the very least way, to DU discussions, are unaware that US client states are Sunni, that they are aligned with al qaeda jihadists (from back in the days of Afghanistan vs USSR), and that these jihadists are the employee base of the Blackwater/Xe/Academi mercinary army.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. Some of us have been watching from the beginning.

[John2]

3. The U.S. has been

using this strategy ever since its beginning. It is called divide and conquer. You get all your enemies fighting against each other. That is their biggest flaw. It is their religious differences. The trophy is control of the land and resources. The sectarian rulers understand this, and many of them are the dictators. So why these poor people kill themselves over religious differences, a few people get rich. They are all being taken advantage of by greedy people.