A War of Brothers in Iraq: ‘I Will Kill Him With My Own Hands’ - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/world/middleeast/iraq-isis-sunnis-sectarian-falluja.html
In northern Iraq, Nofal Hammadi, the governor-in-exile of Mosul, is working with the United States to plan for that city’s liberation from the Islamic State. He, too, has family in the fight: Mr. Hammadi’s brother is an Islamic State official, having appeared in a video pledging his allegiance to the terror group and disowning his brother.
Even as the central question of Iraq remains unanswered — whether the country’s Sunni minority and Shiite majority can ever peacefully coexist in a unified state — the experiences of General Razaij, Mr. Hammadi and others add a troubling corollary: It is not clear that Iraq’s divided Sunnis will ever be able to find peace among themselves after a conflict that in many ways is playing out as a war within families.
After all, when Iraqi Sunnis talk about fighting the Islamic State, it is not a discussion of some shadowy and unknowable force. It is about sons and brothers, nephews and neighbors.
“Today we don’t necessarily need reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites,” General Razaij said. “We need reconciliation among one sect.”