Civil War Leaves No Sanctuary for Wounded

Shiite militias have been conducting death raids on Iraqi hospitals, signaling an escalation in the sectarian violence that plagues the country. Many Sunnis, some seriously wounded, have been forced to seek medical attention at home, or in illegal clinics.

The Iraqi health ministry is controlled by Shiites, raising questions about government complicity in the killings.

So Mounthir Abbas Saud, whose right arm and jaw were ripped off when a car bomb exploded six months ago, must have thought the worst was over when he arrived at Ibn al-Nafis Hospital, a major medical center here.

Instead, it had just begun. A few days into his recovery at the facility, armed Shiite Muslim militiamen dragged the 43-year-old Sunni mason down the hallway floor, snapping intravenous needles and a breathing tube out of his body, and later riddled his body with bullets, family members said.

Authorities say it was not an isolated incident. In Baghdad these days, not even the hospitals are safe. In growing numbers, sick and wounded Sunnis have been abducted from public hospitals operated by Iraq’s Shiite-run Health Ministry and later killed, according to patients, families of victims, doctors and government officials.

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