Special to WorldTribune.com

BAGHDAD — The Sunni revolt in Syria is said to have spilled into
neighboring Iraq.

Officials said the U.S.-trained Iraq Army and security forces have faced
the worst violence since the pullout of the U.S. military in 2011. They said
the violence, including attacks on soldiers and police, stemmed from Al
Qaida fighters who came from neighboring Syria.

“This came back to Iraq, because it began in another place in this
region,” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said.

In a televised address on April 27, Al Maliki acknowledged the death of
hundreds of Iraqis in late April. The Shi’ite prime minister, deemed an ally
of Iran and Syrian President Bashar Assad, said the battles between Sunni
fighters and Shi’ite security forces in Hawijah would not result in an Army
pullout from Sunni areas.

“Sectarianism is evil, and the wind of sectarianism does not need a
license to cross from one country to another, because if it begins in one
place, it will move to another place,” Maliki said.

More than 215 people have been killed in battles in Hawijah since April
23. Officials said the Iraq Army and security forces, led by Shi’ite
commanders, encountered heavy resistance by Al Qaida-aligned fighters
believed financed by Saudi Arabia.

“Strife is knocking on everybody’s door, and no one will survive if it
enters, because there is a wind, money and plans behind it,” Al Maliki said.

One option by Baghdad has been to revive the Sahwa, a U.S.-sponsored
Sunni auxiliary force that fought Al Qaida from 2006 through 2010. Over the
last three years, Al Maliki has reduced Sahwa to a shadow of its former
self, which at one point included nearly 100,000 officers. Dozens of Sahwa
officers have also been killed in the Al Qaida-aligned attacks in northern
Iraq.

The Sunni-Shi’ite fighting has been accompanied by the deployment of
Kurdish forces near the disputed northern city of Kirkuk. Officials said the
Kurdish deployment could trigger another crisis with Baghdad.

“It is a dangerous development,” Iraqi Gen. Ali Majid Ghaidan, commander
of the 1st Army, said.

  Gen. Ali Majid Ghaidan, Hawijah, Iraq leader: ‘Evil’ Al Qaida forces cross border from Syria, Nouri Al Maliki, Sahwa, Shi’ites