Shiite Struggle in Iraq Spills Over Area

An Iraqi woman carries a child that plays dead as they take part in a performance in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City, Iraq, Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006, organized by the powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's bureau to honor victims of terrorist attacks in Iraq. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) (Karim Kadim - AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- When Ziad Saleh, a Sunni Arab, married a Shiite woman 17 months ago, it did not cross his mind that their mixed marriage would bring risk of death.

But these days, love between Sunnis and Shiites requires extraordinary caution. Saleh and Rawaa al-Saadi, both 28, live in Saleh's house in the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah. When al-Saadi visits her parents in a Shiite area across Baghdad, Saleh drives her to a neutral zone between the two, where one of her brothers picks her up.

"We sometimes feel like we have done something really wrong, rather than just being an ordinary married couple with a child," said Saleh, bitterly.

The fall of Saddam Hussein was supposed to have heralded a joyous era, freeing Iraqis from decades of oppression that touched everyone _ Shiite Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds alike.

Instead, the nation has been torn apart by an ancient divide.

The creation in Iraq of the only Shiite-run Arab government, toppling long Sunni dominance, has released long-restrained hatred between Islam's two main sects. Battles between Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias are claiming scores of victims every day and forcing tens of thousands to flee the country.

And while the main battle has been in Iraq, Shiite power has become a dominant issue across the Middle East, and Sunni Arab leaders in Jordan and Saudi Arabia are expressing growing concern about Shiite power in the Arab lands, often backed by non-Arab, Shiite Iran.

The religious split dates from the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632, when Shiites wanted a member of the prophet's family to succeed him as leader of the faith, while the Sunnis wanted a close friend of Muhammad's to assume the mantle. The dispute led to a series of bloody battles that killed the prophet's son-in-law and grandsons.

The two sides have been politically divided, too. Sunnis are by far the majority in the Muslim world, but in some key Arab states the Shiites are a majority or a significant minority _ in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia _ but have been dominated by Sunnis, often as a legacy of colonial rule by the Sunni-ruled Ottoman Turkish empire and the British.

Now, the Shiites' takeover in Iraq is stirring hopes for similar power in other lands with large Shiite populations. The rivalry has repercussions beyond Islam since it is happening in a region that supplies much of the world's oil.

It was almost by accident that "the Bush administration helped launch a broad Shiite revival that will upset the sectarian balance in Iraq and the Middle East for years to come," said Vali Nasr, a prominent U.S.-based expert on Shiites.

The divide seemed small four years ago when the war was being planned. Today, the fallout already can be seen: