Nearly every day, police find corpses in Baghdad streets and vacant lots, victims of death squads that hunt down members of the rival sect. The bodies often show signs of horrific torture, including holes drilled into their eyes or skulls.
As a result, many Iraqis -- especially those who live in Baghdad and other religiously mixed cities -- are terrified. Almost everyone seems to have a relative or acquaintance who has disappeared or died violently.
Airlines that fly out of Baghdad are heavily booked through the summer as Iraqis with enough money send their families abroad -- many of them for long stays. But most Iraqis can't leave, and are forced to live in a constant state of fear.
In Baghdad, few venture out in the evening -- except in districts where their sect is in the majority and the streets are controlled by militias. Motorists use streets that steer clear of areas where the other sect dominates.
Escape
In a statement June 27, the UN estimated that about 150,000 Iraqis had fled their neighborhoods to escape sectarian and insurgency-related violence during the previous four months.
The lucky ones find shelter with relatives in areas where most people are members of their own sect. The less fortunate end up in small tent cities clustered around mosques.
US officials blame much of the sectarian crisis on the legacy of the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq until he was killed in a US airstrike on June 7.
Others believe the US contributed to sectarian strains by appearing to favor Shiites early in the occupation, in the belief that many Sunni Arabs remained loyal to former president Saddam Hussein. That perception fueled Sunni fears that the Shiite majority would seek payback for repression under Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime.
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