Iraqi Shia Militiamen Win Trust in Some Sunni Villages, Face Tougher Tests Ahead

“When Iraqi forces closed in, IS (Islamic State) militants told us Shia soldiers would murder us and rape our women,” said Fatehi Mohammad, a 64-year-old farmer in a remote desert village in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh province.     Before IS took over his village of Bashmana, there were neither military forces nor minority citizens of any kind in the tiny Sunni enclave, so the villagers had no reason to doubt the IS warnings.  “But we told them, we would stay in our home or...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - dimanche 18 décembre 2016