伊拉克叛軍進軍巴格達速度放緩
Sunni insurgents made new territorial gains in northern Iraq yesterday although their push towards Baghdad appeared to slow amid mounting resistance from Shia militias.
伊拉克遜尼派叛軍昨日繼續在北部地區攻城掠地，不過由於遭遇什葉派民兵日益強烈的抵抗，他們向巴格達的推進速度似乎有所放緩。Insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) moved northwest into the town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border, and said they had taken control of the town’s airport, which would be the fifth airport seized by the militants since Iraq’s second-largest city fell to them last Monday.
來自“伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯蘭國”(Isis)的叛亂分子沿着西北方向推進至靠近敘利亞邊境的泰勒阿費爾鎮(Tal Afar)，並聲稱已經控制了當地機場，這可能是他們自上週一攻佔伊拉克第二大城市以來佔領的第五座機場。The new advances by Isis came as tens of thousands of Iraqi volunteers and Shia militia started to move north from Baghdad as the government sought to wrest back towns over-run by Sunni insurgents.
在Isis繼續向巴格達推進之際，數萬名伊拉克志願者和什葉派民兵開始從巴格達向北移動，因爲政府尋求奪回被遜尼派叛軍佔據的城鎮。
The fast-changing military movements raised the prospect of a stalemate, with insurgents meeting little resistance in Sunni areas but facing strong opposition as they approach the capital. However, the increasing activity also raises the chances of a full-blown sectarian conflict in the country.
快速變化的軍事動態加大了伊拉克陷入僵局的可能性，叛軍在遜尼派地區幾乎沒有遭遇多少抵抗，但在逼近巴格達途中遭到強烈的抵抗。然而，武裝衝突愈演愈烈也加大了這個國家陷入全面教派衝突的可能性。A suicide bomb killed 14 and injured more at a busy market in the centre of Baghdad yesterday. Even as the militants’ advance towards the capital slowed, the city has been placed on a war footing.
昨日，巴格達市中心一個繁忙的市場發生了一起自殺性炸彈襲擊事件，導致14人喪生，還有多人受傷。即便Isis向巴格達的推進速度有所放緩，但該市已經進入了戰爭狀態。Isis posted images on Twitter purporting to show the execution of hundreds of Iraqi soldiers, inflaming passions among the Shia community, although the pictures could not be verified.
Isis在Twitter上發佈了據稱是處決數百名伊拉克士兵的圖片，點燃了什葉派民衆進行反擊的熱情，儘管這些圖片的真實性還有待考證。Amid rising sectarian tensions in Baghdad, there were many as yet unsubstantiated rumours of reprisals against Sunni Muslims.
隨着巴格達的宗派緊張關係加劇，有關對遜尼派穆斯林展開報復的謠言四起。Young men have been flooding into recruitment centres in the capital and other Shia-
年輕人響應伊拉克最高宗教領袖“大阿雅圖拉席斯塔尼”(Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani)參加政府軍、但保持克制避免加劇教派分裂的號召，大量涌入巴格達和卡巴拉等其他以什葉派人口爲主的城市的徵兵中心。什葉派的主要政客們正在請求選民們拿起武器。majority cities, such as Karbala, as they heed a call from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country’s most senior cleric, to enlist in the state’s security forces but to refrain from inflaming sectarian divisions. Leading Shia politicians are imploring their constituents to take up arms.
在西方就伊拉克緣何發生新的暴力衝突展開激烈辯論之際，英國前首相托尼•布萊爾(Tony Blair)反駁了伊拉克當前叛亂應歸咎於美英入侵的說法。他辯稱，此次危機是西方未能干涉敘利亞的“可以預見到”的結果。Amid fierce debates in the west about what prompted the new violence, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has rejected suggestions that the US-UK Iraq invasion was to blame for the current insurgency in Iraq, arguing that the crisis was the “predictable” result of the west’s failure to intervene in Syria.
布萊爾在自己網站上的一篇文章中再次呼籲在整個中東地區對極端武裝分子展開軍事行動，他寫道：“我們必須讓自己拋開‘我們’導致了這種局面的觀念。這不是我們導致的。”Renewing his call for military action against extremist fighters across the Middle East, Mr Blair wrote in an essay on his website: “We have to liberate ourselves from the notion that ‘we’ have caused this. We haven’t.”
美國週六在海灣地區部署了一艘航空母艦，總統巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)正在權衡是否發起空襲，以期阻止遜尼派叛軍的推進。華盛頓的辯論在很大程度上因黨派立場產生分歧——共和黨人敦促奧巴馬進行干涉，而許多民主黨人依然不願美國在伊拉克採取新的軍事行動。
