Shia's Sell Out

In Iraq:

Iraqi Shias have admitted taking part in brutal attacks on members of their own religious community after being recruited as paid hitmen for the Sunni terrorist leader, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.

The confessions to their involvement in murders, kidnappings and car bombings have shocked fellow Shias, who until now have maintained that most of the attacks against them have been carried out by Sunni insurgents intent on starting civil war.

According to statements given to the Iraqi police, gangs of Shia men have admitted taking $1,500 a month - about 10 times the average wage - from Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad movement, the al-Qa'eda offshoot widely held as the most ruthless insurgent group in Iraq.

Zarqawi, believed to have been responsible for the beheading of the British hostage, Ken Bigley, last year, makes no secret of his hatred for Shias, whose religious creed is seen as a form of apostasy by followers of his extremist Sunni creed. Over the past year his group has killed hundreds in kidnappings, car bombings and beheadings.

This should loosen some lips as to the whereabouts of Zarqawi. The Shia are establishing themselves as a viable plitical force yet seem to have not taken the revenge rout that many had feared. Being oppressed by the Baathists and Sunni's for 50 years would've definitely built up huge amounts of resentment. The Sunni (and Kurdish) elements do not seem to have acted on that resentment.