EXTREMISM IN SOUTHERN IRAQ

The women of Basra are still under attack by religious extremists. I suppose Gen. Petraeus wouldn't call this sectarian violence but what other term is appropriate?

Violations of 'Islamic teachings' take deadly toll on Iraqi women
February 8, 2008 -- Updated 1426 GMT (2226 HKT)
By Arwa Damon
CNN

The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce.

Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year -- 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings" and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN, the news branch of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

One glance through the police file is enough to understand the consequences. Basra's police chief, Gen. Abdul Jalil Khalaf, flips through the file, pointing to one unsolved case after another.

"I think so far, we have been unable to tackle this problem properly," he says. "There are many motives for these crimes and parties involved in killing women, by strangling, beheading, chopping off their hands, legs, heads."