As the American troops pull out from the everyday mayhem of trying to keep order in a country that seems tediously on the verge of  implosion, Iraq’s gay and lesbian community have become prime targets for a new wave of violence.

On the streets in the Shia strongholds of Sadr City, wanted posters of men are in full display.  So far, almost 70 have been killed in the past four months alone. Effeminate men, gay or not, are fair game for the Shia militias who have since focused their hatred to “cleansing” Iraq of homosexuals.

Iraqi LGBT claimthat Iraq’s police force and interior ministry are directly implicated in the killings and torture.  But the Baghdad US Embassy says such accusations are unfounded.  In face of the evidence, the US Embassy has instead decided not to upset the political underbelly of Iraq’s current government. 

Afterall, it was the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the so-called spiritual leader of all Iraqi Shiite Muslims, who issued a death-to-all-gays fatwa in 2005. Since his declaration, over 600 people have been murdered.