Amiriya
Slogger reported last week that Iraqi security forces had announced that operations in Amiriya were nearly complete and called for the authorities to aid residents in returning to their homes.
In fact, much of Amiriya remains under the control of the al-Qa'ida-affiliated al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad organization, a source reports. In a commercial area and major throughfare of the district known as al-'Amil al-Sha'bi Street, police and military forces are not present, a local source tells Slogger, and the al-Qa'ida-affiliated militants are in control. Some of the shops on al-'Amil al-Sha'bi Street, are allowed to open, and can even stay open after sunset, but in return the group extorts payments from the shopkeepers.
Militants also distribute compact discs to locals, Slogger’s source says, to propagandize their armed operations. Usually they pass the discs out by hand, or force shopkeepers to dispense them in grocery bags. Sometimes the groups place the discs on cars in residential areas. “No one is allowed to refuse,” Slogger’s local source says.
