Sunni Baghdad Lies in Ruins as Shiites Rebuild

Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods are in collapse, lacking food, fuel,  electricity and health care even as their Shiite neighbors have regained basic services, Alissa Rubin reports. In Shiite areas, the Mahdi Army fills in for the government by keeping order and organizing resources, but Sunnis now find themselves under attack both from Shiite forces and Sunni insurgents.

Government officials, Sunni and Shia alike, now refuse to travel into most Sunni neighborhoods, meaning food rations and medical supplies don't get delivered. And residents who collaborate with the government or attempt to open businesses are targeted by insurgents. "Sometimes they leave a note," reports Um Hint, a Sunni, "but sometimes they put a bomb in front of the shop." (More Iraq stories.)