The Sadrist Nahrain Net website decried the lack of press coverage of what it described as a campaign of daily mortar attacks against Shi’ite districts of Baghdad over the last two weeks. The website said 12 civilians were killed and 20 others wounded during mortar attacks against the Za’faraniya and Abu Dshir districts south of Baghdad Wednesday. In the Sh’ite majority suburb of Husseiniya, northeast of Baghdad, 11 people were reportedly killed in another attack Tuesday, according to the website, and similar attacks were reported in both Sadr City and the Amil district the same day.

Residents of Abu Dshir told Nahrain that over 150 mortar shells had hit their district over the last month, mostly from the surrounding rural districts of Hor Rijab, Arab Jubour and Ma’eenat, all strongholds of extremist Sunni militant groups. The district had recently witnessed an influx of hundreds of displaced families driven out of the Dora, Mahdiya and Mechanic districts in the north by Sunni insurgents. The residents also complained from continuous U.S. military raids and detentions of dozens of Mahdi Army elements that were in charge of protecting their neighbourhood from insurgent attacks, the website said.

Meanwhile, the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq accused “terrorist militias of a well-known political movement” of targeting the mixed Furat district southwest of Baghdad with dozens of rockets and mortar shells Tuesday and Monday. The association said dozens of civilians were wounded and several homes were destroyed in the attacks.

SCIRI’s Buratha News Agency reported that the Shi’ite town of Balad north of Baghdad was also bombed with 60 mm mortar shells from the nearby rural areas of Ruwashid. The agency’s correspondent in the Shi’ite-majority town, which has been besieged by hostile Sunni militant groups for months, said the the Jam’ia district near the shrine of Sayyid Mohammed was also targeted with three mortar shells from the nearby town of Dhilu’iya across the Tigris River, which is under the control of Al-Qaeda affiliated militant groups.

Tribal leaders in the Anbar governorate west of Iraq pledged to protect travelers taking the one-thousand-kilometer highway between Baghdad and the Jordanian border from insurgent groups and bandits who often target passengers based on their religious and sectarian backgrounds, according to the Iraq News Network. Sheikh Hatem Nasir Al-Sha’lan, a leader of the Dulaim tribe in western Iraq, described those who murder travelers based on sectarian identity on the international highway as criminals aiming to destroy Iraq’s social fabric.

Travelers and drivers fleeing Iraq through the desert highway to the Syrian and Jordanian borders over the last four years had described hundreds of tales of brutal abductions and summary executions by Sunni militant groups and outlaws who often apprehend passengers, separating Sunnis from Shi’ites, and then drag Shi’ite passengers and drivers to their violent deaths. “We were on our way to Syria one afternoon when four vehicles, each carrying four to five masked gunmen, surrounded us at the Kilo 160 area and dragged out four young men after checking their ID cards,” said Riyadh Muhoder Ghanim, a taxi driver working between Baghdad and Syria. “They were about to execute the boys but a miracle saved them; dozens of pickups carrying Anbar tribesmen suddenly arrived at the area and clashed with the masked militants, allowing us to continue our journey safely to Syria.”

Residents of the predominately Sunni district of Adil west of Baghdad claimed that a U.S. military commander threatened to permit Mahdi Army militiamen to assault their district if attacks against U.S. troops are not ceased immediately, according to the Haqq Agency. The residents named the U.S. commander as “Michel,” with the rank of a lieutenant. They said he told them Mahdi Army militias are based in the neighboring districts of Shu’la and Hurriya, and that he is prepared to permit them to storm the Adil district and destroy it if IED attacks against U.S. troops do not cease.

Displaced Christian families from the Dora district south of Baghdad reported a worsening situation after Sunni extremist groups imposed levies on Christian families under the excuse of their protection by the Islamic State of Iraq insurgent group. Eyewitnesses said that Christian families were asked to pay up to 250 thousand Dinars ($180) per month to be allowed to stay in the district and avoid conversion to Islam. “The problem is not with the peaceful Muslim families that live with us,” said Abu Simon, a Christian resident of Dora; “they are sympathetic to our situation and they have suffered just as much from the deteriorating situation in our area. The problem is with the control of terrorist groups who are imposing their own laws over residents.” Abu Simon added that the new security operation has hardly been noticed in Dora since U.S. and Iraqi Army troops patrol the district but without any effect on militant groups. Several families in the 60th Street of the Mechanic district south of Dora said insurgents have charged them 50 thousand Dinars for each pickup truck carrying their belongings. The Tu’ma, Mu’alimeen and Iskan Al-Sha’bi districts of Dora have been barricaded with concrete blocks since April 2006, residents said, adding that the barriers have done nothing to halt the activities of armed groups in the area.

An official Saudi source said the reason behind Riyadh’s refusal to host Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki was for his role in promoting Iranian influence in Iraq, Al-Melaf Press reported. The agency did not name the source but he was described as a prominent Saudi official.

Al-Melaf also reported an outbreak of sporadic clashes in the Basrah governorate south of Iraq after Fadhila Party elements reportedly assassinated three men affiliated with the Sadr Bureau in Basrah. Unnamed sources in the southern city told Al-Melaf that the Fadhila Party, which dominates the governorate council and the police force in Basrah, had called on its members in other southern governorates to head to Basrah in preparation for a possible confrontation with Sadrists, the website said.

Fighting broke out between Mahdi Army militiamen in the predominately Shi’ite district of Shu’la west of Baghdad Wednesday after Shi’ite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr issued a statement suspending seven well-known members of the militia, Al-Melaf reported. “We declare our innocence of those members because they are guilty of acts that go against Islamic teachings,” the statement said, adding that “Iraqi tribes” were free to apprehend those rogue elements that have infiltrated the Sadrist Movement.