Sadr’s fighters guard Shiite shrines, Sunni inhabitants in Iraq's Samarra
The predominantly Sunni city of Samarra, which includes one of the main Shiite holy shrines and is under the control of mostly Shiite militias, continues to be a prime target for IS and criminal groups.
SAMARRA, Iraq — Islamic State attacks continue on police stations and checkpoints in the Sunni-majority city of Samarra that is guarded by the non-local, volunteer Shiite armed group Saraya al-Salam.
Two Jan. 2 attacks left several security officers dead and resulted in a shoot-out lasting into the next day. On Jan. 17, the directorate of military intelligence announced that they arrested the man who had coordinated the attack two weeks earlier with a variety of weapons and explosive materials intended for being used in future attacks in Samarra.
The local media chief for the group told Al-Monitor in an interview some days later that it does not allow other Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) into the area without prior permission after an agreement with the government.
Samarra, roughly 130 kilometers (81 miles) north of Baghdad and 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Tikrit, is widely known for a 2006 attack on the Al-Askari Shrine revered by Shiites that sparked sectarian bloodletting across the country. IS leader Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri al-Samarrai, more commonly known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was born in 1971 in a village nearby.
