BAGHDAD // Behind black gates and high walls, Iraqi national security agents watch 200 women and children.
Boys and girls play in the yard and then dart inside their trailers, located in a former US military camp and one-time headquarters for Saddam Hussein’s officials in Babel province’s capital Hilla.
The women and children were rounded up as they fled with their male relatives in October from Jurf Al Sakhr, a bastion of ISIL, during a Shiite militia and military operation to clear the Sunni extremist group’s fighters from the farming community.
Security forces separated out the men, accusing them of being ISIL fighters. They have not been heard from since. The women and children are being investigated, but have not been brought to court.
Their status shows how central Iraq’s mixed Shiite and Sunni regions are being altered.
As Shiite forces push into territories held by ISIL, many Sunnis have fled for fear of both the Shiite-led government and the Sunni extremists.
Shiite leaders insist ISIL must never be allowed to strike them again, nor return to areas now abandoned.
Shiite groups now decide who can stay in a community and who should leave; whose houses should be destroyed and whose can stand.
“Some of these towns and villages, which were neutral or partial to [ISIL], have been retaken. I don’t think the people living there will go back. We are talking about depopulated areas that may be resettled by different groups,” said Ali Allawi a historian and former Iraqi minister.
More than 130,000 people, mostly Sunnis, fled central Iraq in 2014, counting just Baghdad’s agricultural belt and north-eastern Diyala province, according to the International Rescue Committee.
Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi’s government stresses the importance of helping people return home. But in the current chaos it is questionable whether officials can help, or that the displaced will want to return.
Already dramatic changes are happening on the ground. For the 200 women and children from Jurf Al Sakhr, it has meant an undefined period of detention.
“I’m trapped here living on charity without understanding why all this happened to us”, said Umm Mohamed. “All that I wish is to have my husband back and to return to our small farm.”
“These families were joining or harbouring [ISIL],” said Falah Al Rahdi, head of the Babel provincial council’s security committee. “The judicial system will decide their fate.”
As Shiite militia leaders and tribal allies surround Sunni villages in central Iraq, they insist they have strong intelligence from inside the communities.
“Our orders come from the government: whoever is with [ISIL], we will confiscate their land,”said a commander from Asaib Ahl Al Haq.Those who aren’t ISIL “will be allowed back”.
However, those who have lost their homes say the militias make little distinction between militants and civilians when they storm areas.
Akram Shahab, 32, a Shiite in Diyala’s Saadiya district, fled with his family in June when ISIL were about to overrun the town.
When he heard from a Sunni neighbour that a militant family had moved into his home, he was relieved it had not been blown up.
But after Iraqi militias and security forces kicked ISIL out in November, the militias burnt Mr Shahab’s house assuming it was a terrorist’s.
The next day, he went with Shiite militiamen to inspect the ruins. “I blamed the militia members at the scene for burning my house and they defended themselves, saying how could they tell a Sunni house from a Shiite house.”
Mr Shahab, who comes has both Shiite and Sunni relatives, said he managed to save his Sunni aunt’s house by telling the militia she belonged to their sect.
“They spray-painted [Shiite] on the gate to alert the other militia groups,” he said.
“They told me, ‘We need to clean your town from those germs who supported [ISIL]. You might have lost your house but as a Shiite you will live with your head high from now on’.”
* Reuters
Confirmed%20bouts%20(more%20to%20be%20added)
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The%C2%A0specs%20
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Schedule:
Sept 15: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Dubai)
Sept 16: Pakistan v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 17: Sri Lanka v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 18: India v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 19: India v Pakistan (Dubai)
Sept 20: Bangladesh v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi) Super Four
Sept 21: Group A Winner v Group B Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 21: Group B Winner v Group A Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 23: Group A Winner v Group A Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 23: Group B Winner v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 25: Group A Winner v Group B Winner (Dubai)
Sept 26: Group A Runner-up v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 28: Final (Dubai)
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
MATCH DETAILS
Barcelona 0
Slavia Prague 0
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'Gehraiyaan'
Director:Shakun Batra
Stars:Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa
Rating: 4/5
The biog
Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
List of officials:
Referees: Chris Broad, David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Ranjan Madugalle and Richie Richardson.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, Kumara Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.
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Jawan
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5