Iraqi govt trying to protect all victims of sectarian violence

Iraqi security forces are doing everything they can to protect victims of sectarian violence in Baghdad, including families that are being driven from their homes in mixed neighbourhoods of Shiites and Sunni Arabs, a government official said today.

Citing one example of those efforts, Mohammed al-Askari, the spokesman of the Defence Ministry, said Iraqi soldiers rushed to Ghazaliyah, a primarily Sunni area of west Baghdad, this morning to free 23 Iraqis who had been taken hostage at a fake checkpoint that had been set up there.