Meanwhile, the secular Iraqi street focused on the massacre itself, accusing all parties involved in the bloody fighting in Syria. Al-Monitor interviewed Iraqi Facebook activist Areej al-Khalidi about the Syrian massacre. Khalidi said that what is happening in Syria is insane by any measure. He said that the Syrian regime is the main party to blame for acting unwisely and for using excessive force and that both parties should stop the fighting whatever the cost — because of the high toll in terms of innocent children killed and the daily scenes of massacres for over two years, which should be enough to persuade the parties to renounce violence and move toward other options to resolving the crisis.
The criminal event in Syria was accompanied by reports that al-Qaeda intends to use chemical weapons against the Green Zone in Baghdad and Shiite areas, causing fear in the street and fanning the sectarian tensions. That declaration increased the likelihood that it was the Salafist rebels who committed the Syrian massacre, although some have doubted that and considered it a terror scenario designed for specific political goals.
Finally, in light of the already charged Iraqi sectarian atmosphere, any negative development in Syria will affect the situation in Iraq, where the group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) published a video clip showing the execution of allegedly Alawite truck drivers. The executions happened in Anbar province in retaliation, according to the killers, for what is happening to the Sunnis in Syria.
Ali Mamouri is a researcher and writer who specializes in religion. He is a former teacher in Iranian universities and seminaries in Iran and Iraq. He has published several articles related to religious affairs in the two countries and societal transformations and sectarianism in the Middle East.
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