In the nearby Adil district, south of Hurriya, the agency reported that 60 Shi'ite families were ordered to leave the district, Sunday, by guards from Adnan Al-Dulaimi's compound in Adil. Several Sunni families deported from Hurriya have taken refuge in the residences of deported Shi'ite families in Adil, and vice versa.
The agency also reported an exchange of mortar shelling between "popular committees" of the Al-Dhahab Al-Abyadh village, northwest of Baghad, and Zoba' tribesmen at Abu Ghraib, Sunday afternoon. The Baghdad districts of Adhamiya, Tunis and Baladiyyat were also hit with mortar shells Sunday.
In regard to the Hurriya incident, the Islam Memo website reports that gunmen called on Sunni residents through loudspeakers to leave their homes within half an hour or they would be burned down on them. According to their correspondent, the gunmen used sectarian slurs, referring to the Sunni families as "the grandsons of the infidel Mu'awiya and Omar the homosexual" (both early Muslim Caliphs revered by Sunnis but despised by Shia).
The Haqq Agency adds that the Iraqi army unit in Hurriya advised Sunni residents to leave the district, since they were unable to protect them from militia attacks. Eyewitnesses said that the gunmen were chanting slogans such as "Liberate Hurriya, Mahdi Army!"
The Iraqi Rabita website has photos of a demonstration by the deported families of Hurriya. They carried banners reading, "Mahdi Army gangs deport us and burn our houses and mosques in Hurriya, while Maliki watches," and "The gangs of Muqtada, Al-Hakim, Al-A'raji and Al-Sagheir kill and deport Sunnis in Baghdad."
In an ominous development, the Iraq News Agency reports a statement by the Interior Ministry dated December 10 that prohibits real estate agents and property owners in Baghdad from selling or leasing properties without reporting to a police station and filling out an information form with details of the transaction.
The Aswat Al-Iraq News Agency (Voices of Iraq) reports on a fatwa from the office of Ayatollah Sheikh Mohammed Al-Ya'qubi, spiritual leader of the Fadhila Party, that prohibits members of Iraqi parliament from performing the Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca this year. 176 out of 275 members of parliament had registered for the Hajj this year, according to Firas Al-Karbasi, media spokesman of Sheikh Ya'qubi, who stated that many of them had already gone two or three times to Mecca in the past, alluding to an abuse of their governmental position.
