December 2011 Violence
On December 2, after Friday prayers, unknown persons rampaged through the city of Zakho attacking liquor stores, beauty salons, a Chinese massage parlor, and several hotels. The sale of alcohol in Iraq is often the preserve of Christians, who were disproportionate victims of the arson attacks. The violence quickly spread throughout the Bahdinan area of Iraqi Kurdistan, to nearby Dohuk, and eventually as far as way as the south-eastern Sorani city of Sulaymaniyah. At least 30 people were injured. Government spokesmen for the Kurdistan Democratic Party blamed the violence on a cleric associated with the Kurdistan Islamic Union. But KIU and cleric himself has refuted these allegations. The KIU has a strong support base in the region - although not as strong as the KDP. Subsequent to the attacks, the KDP supporters set fire to more than four KIU political and media offices throughout the Bahdinan area of Kurdistan region.
Read more about this topic: Kurdistan Islamic Union
Famous quotes containing the words december and/or violence:
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“Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918)