Contact Admin. An hour from Baghdad where the battle lines are drawn, residents of Baquba say they're caught between two terrifying options. Just to the north are Isis, the Sunni militant group bent on destroying Iraq and the Shias who govern it. To the south are Shia militias who have responded with vehemence and are transforming the frontlines into a sectarian showdown that pays no heed to the state.
I don't know who to be more scared of. Asa'ib ahl al-Haq is the most powerful Shia militia in Iraq, and perhaps the most potent in the land.
A direct proxy of the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, who has extraordinary influence across Iran's sphere of influence, Asa'ib is untouchable in Baghdad and feared around the country. Asa'ib, like Isis, has made Baquba and the area that surrounds it one of the most important flashpoints in Iraq.
Whoever controls this lethal city will secure an approach to the capital an hour south, and a foothold in the east within striking distance of the Iranian border. In 18 days of what is fast becoming another civil war, the Iraqi government has insisted that its forces are leading a fightback against Isis, which now occupies around one third of the country. Western officials in Baghdad estimate , Isis members are in the country. Clashes between Isis and military units continued in Tikrit , where the Iraqi army gained ground over the weekend.
By Sunday, fighting was still raging in parts of the central city, not far from Awja, Saddam Hussein's home village. Isis members had been in contact with local tribal leaders coordinating the fightback in Tikrit, claiming they would soon withdraw to the northern area of Baiji. The jets are ground fighters and will be flown by Iraqi pilots, state media said. The US has so far not acceded to Iraq's request that its air force return to Iraq to help fight Isis, which has seized most of the weapons from the Iraqi army's main depots in the north and is sending reinforcements from Syria.
