Background - scroll to From Worse to....?About 1,500 Iraqi soldiers, backed by U.S. troops, raided the town of Madain, also known also as Salman Pak.
But the security forces said on Monday that they found no hostages and that nobody resisted the move to take control over the town.
An Iraqi army spokesman, Brig Gen Mohammed Sabri Latif, said that the army regained full control over the city.[...]
An MP in the Shiite-dominated house said that security forces had done nothing to stop "sectarian cleansing" in Madain.
A senior member of the influential and mostly Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, Abd al-Salam al-Kubaisi, said that the abduction reports were fabricated as an excuse to raid the town and crack down on the town’s Sunnis.
He added that he had contacted some people in Madain and that they confirmed there was a fierce attack on the town despite the absence of fighters.
"We can call this another Falluja," al-Kubaisi said. He noted that interior ministry announced on 14 April that Iraqi forces will attack the town.
"We have urged them to keep the situation calm, but they have insisted to storm this safe city with its Sunni and Shiites residents. Therefore, this operation comes to create a sectarian strife in the town," he added.
Al-Hureya area in al-Wihda neighborhood was raided 22 days ago although there were no rebels there, al-Kubaisi said. Five days later, all families were thrown out, he added.
"Therefore, the issue is a matter of pursuing resistance fighters in Baghdad," he said, adding that "This is a U.S. plan. Unfortunately, Iraqi National Guardsmen have been dragged into such operations."
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