Baghdad families imprisoned, divided by fear

Claudia Parsons, Reuters

For Abu Mina, a ceramic artist and professor, Baghdad is one big jail -- too dangerous for him to live with his wife and daughters, too dangerous for him to meet his students openly, too dangerous to work in his studio. He and his son, a 21-year-old medical student, recently left the family home for fear of sectarian attacks, dividing his family as the city itself has become increasingly divided. "They kill just boys and men," Abu Mina said of sectarian gunmen. "They leave girls and women. Yesterday my wife gave me a call and she told me my neighbor, a dentist, they took him. "That means in two days they will find him outside Baghdad without life. They kill everybody. So I left my wife and my two girls and I brought with me just my son," said Abu Mina, who studied in the United States...

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