one hundred and fifty hostages, or maybe nine, or none
In recent days, a lot of Shi'ite politicians claimed there were 150 people being held hostage by Sunnis in the town of Madaen, 25 miles southeast of Baghdad. So Iraqi security forces diligently headed out there to check it out, and instead of a tense hostage crisis they found... nothing. Or maybe a few hostages, but no-one is sure of that.
The BBC seems convinced that the whole story was a lie from the beginning, devised by Shi'ite politicians "as an excuse to raid Madain" and "a pretext for cracking down on the town's Sunnis."
Meanwhile, Reuters spoke with people from a nearby village who said that there were scores of bodies dumped in the Tigris river. "There were 100 bodies in the river and beside it. I think they are the people from Madaen," Sattar al-Shamari said.
The BBC seems convinced that the whole story was a lie from the beginning, devised by Shi'ite politicians "as an excuse to raid Madain" and "a pretext for cracking down on the town's Sunnis."
Meanwhile, Reuters spoke with people from a nearby village who said that there were scores of bodies dumped in the Tigris river. "There were 100 bodies in the river and beside it. I think they are the people from Madaen," Sattar al-Shamari said.
"Confusion over events -- including if any hostages were ever held by anyone -- has underlined how out of touch Iraq's authorities have become as a political vacuum, created since the Jan. 30 election, deepens, with no government in sight." (Reuters)
