Militants kill 9 foreign tourists, 1 Pakistani

CORRECTS THE NUMBER OF THE KILLED FOREIGN TOURISTS - FILE - In this May 4, 2004 file photo, Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world, is seen from Karakorum Highway leading to neighboring China in Pakistan's northern area. Gunmen wearing police uniforms killed nine foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn Sunday, June 23, 2013 as they were visiting one of the world’s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan, officials said. (AP Photo/Musaf Zaman Kazmi, File)

Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist, who was killed by Islamic militants, from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death nine foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world’s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — At least a dozen Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death nine foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn Sunday as they were visiting one of the world's highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistanthat has been largely peaceful, officials said.

The foreigners who were killed included five Ukrainians, three Chinese and one Russian, said Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. One Chinese tourist was wounded in the attack and was rescued, he said.

The local branch of the Taliban took responsibility for the killings, saying it was to avenge the death of a leader killed in a recent U.S. drone strike.

The shooting was one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistanin recent years and is likely to damage the country's already struggling tourism industry. Pakistan's mountainous north — considered until now relatively safe — is one of the main attractions in a country beset with insurgency and other political instability.

The attack took place at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world at 8,126 meters (26,660 feet). Nanga Parbat is notoriously difficult to climb and is known as the "killer mountain" because of numerous mountaineering deaths in the past. It's unclear if the tourists were planning to climb the mountain or were just visiting the base camp, which is located in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan.

The gunmen were wearing uniforms used by the Gilgit Scouts, a paramilitary police force that patrols the area, said the interior minister. The attackers abducted two local guides to find their way to the remote base camp. One of the guides was killed in the shooting, and the other has been detained and is being questioned, said Khan.

"The purpose of this attack was to give a message to the world that Pakistan is unsafe for travel," said the interior minister in a speech in the National Assembly, which passed a resolution condemning the incident. "The government will take all measures to ensure the safety of foreign tourists."

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their Jundul Hafsa group carried out the shooting as retaliation for the death of the Taliban's deputy leader, Waliur Rehman, in a U.S. drone attack on May 29.

"By killing foreigners, we wanted to give a message to the world to play their role in bringing an end to the drone attacks," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

At least a dozen gunmen were involved in the attack, local police officer Jahangir Khan said.

The attackers beat up the Pakistanis who were accompanying the tourists, took their money and tied them up, said a senior local government official. They checked the identities of the Pakistanis and shot to death one of them, possibly because he was a minority Shiite Muslim, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Although Gilgit-Baltistan is a relatively peaceful area, it has experienced attacks by radical Sunni Muslims on Shiites in recent years.

The attackers took the money and passports from the foreigners and then gunned them down, said the official. It's unclear how the Chinese tourist who was rescued managed to avoid being killed. The base camp has basic wooden huts, but most tourists choose to sleep in their own tents.

Local police chief Barkat Ali said they first learned of the attack when one of the local guides called the police station around 1 a.m. on Sunday. The military airlifted the bodies to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, Sunday afternoon.

"We hope Pakistani authorities will do their best to find the culprits of this crime," the Ukrainian ambassador to Pakistan, Volodymyr Lakomov, told reporters outside the hospital where the bodies were taken.

The Pakistani government condemned the "brutal act of terrorism" in a statement sent to reporters.

"Those who have committed this heinous crime seem to be attempting to disrupt the growing relations of Pakistan with China and other friendly countries," said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.

Pakistan has very close ties with neighboring China and is sensitive to any issue that could harm the relationship. Pakistani officials have reached out to representatives from China and Ukraine to convey their sympathies, the Foreign Ministry said.

Many foreign tourists stay away from Pakistan because of the perceived danger of visiting a country that is home to a large number of Islamic militant groups, such as the Taliban and al-Qaida, which mostly reside in the northwest near the Afghan border. A relatively small number of intrepid foreigners visit Gilgit-Baltistan during the summer to marvel at the peaks of the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, including K2, the second highest mountain in the world.

Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, condemned the attack and expressed fear that it would seriously damage the region's tourism industry.

"A lot of tourists come to this area in the summer, and our local people work to earn money from these people," said Shah. "This will not only affect our area, but will adversely affect all of Pakistan."

The area has been cordoned off by police and paramilitary soldiers, and a military helicopter was searching the area, said Shah.

"God willing we will find the perpetrators of this tragic incident," said Shah.

The government suspended the chief secretary and top police chief in Gilgit-Baltistan following the attack and ordered an inquiry into the incident, said Khan, the interior minister.

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Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.

What to Expect from the President's Big Climate Change Speech

What to Expect from the President's Big Climate Change Speech

On Tuesday, President Obama will use a speech at the University of Georgetown to announce new, sweeping executive orders addressing climate change that will be designed to appease critics who have attacked the President for talking the green talk and not walking the green walk. Obviously, the White House is also hoping tackling climate change will get them some decent press in the wake of that pesky surveillance scandal.

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NSA Chief Keith Alexander: 'System Did Not Work As It Should Have' to Prevent Snowden Document Leaks

During an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander said this morning on "This Week" that NSA leaker Edward Snowdenhas caused "irreversible and significant damage" to the U.S. with his actions. But Alexander could not say why the NSA's systems were not able to prevent Snowden from stealing and leaking highly classified documents, saying "the system did not work as it should have."

When asked by Stephanopoulos, "Do you understand why the system did not blink red in a way that could prevent Snowden from leaving Hawaii in the first place with those secrets?" Alexander responded, "No, I don't."

"It's clearly an individual who has betrayed the trust and confidence we had in him," Alexander said of Snowden, who has fled Hong Kong in route to Russia today and faces espionage and theft chargesfor leaking classified U.S. documents on the NSA's secret surveillance programs. "This is an individual who is not acting, in my opinion, with noble intent."

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT HERE

"What Snowden has revealed has caused irreversible and significant damage to our country and to our allies," Alexander added in his first Sunday morning interview as NSA director.

When asked if there is anything that could prevent another private contractor from accessing and leaking classified information from the NSA's systems, Alexander said, "This is a key issue we've got to work our way through. Clearly, the system did not work as it should have."

"[Snowden] betrayed the trust and confidence we had in him. This was an individual with top secret clearance whose duty it was to administer these networks. He betrayed that confidence and stole some of our secrets," Alexander added. "We are now putting in place actions that would give us the ability to track our system administrators, what they are doing, what they're taking, a two-man rule. We've changed the passwords. But at the end of the day, we have to trust that our people are gonna do the right thing."

But Alexander defended the NSA's surveillance programs revealed by Snowden, saying they have been critical in disrupting terrorist plots since Sept. 11.

"My first responsibility to the American people is to defend this nation… The intel community failed to connect the dots in 9-11. And much of what we've done since then were to give us the capabilities… that help us connect the dots," Alexander said of the NSA's domestic phone and overseas internet surveillance programs. "These are two of the most important things, from my perspective, that helps us understand what the terrorists are trying to do," Alexander said.

Alexander testified before the House Intelligence Committee last week that the surveillance programs helped prevent 50 terrorist attacks worldwide. But while critics in Congress agree the PRISM overseas computer surveillance program has been effective, they question whether the domestic phone data collection program has produced tangible results. Alexander says the phone program has been key in disrupting 10 plots.

"If you look at it just across the board, across these 50, the business record FISA [phone collection] is only going to focus on those that had a nexus in the United States, and that's a little over 10," Alexander told Stephanopoulos. "And in those, I think it contributed in the majority of cases. It allowed us to form some of the dots. And I think that's key in what we're trying to do."

And Alexander said his agency follows the law in how it monitors phone conversations involving overseas contacts with individuals in the U.S., requiring a court order before monitoring.

NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander

"In order for the NSA to target the content of a U.S. person's communications anywhere in the world, anywhere, NSA requires probable cause and a court order, a specific court order," Alexander said.

"We train our people how to do this right. We get oversight by Justice, we get oversight by the courts, we get oversight by the administration and by Congress, all three parts of government," he added.

The Cyber Threat

Alexander, a four-star general who has headed the National Security Agency since 2005, also took charge of U.S. Cyber Command in 2010, presiding over military efforts on cyber warfare operations.

Alexander explained the extent of his authority on cyber warfare, after documents leaked by Snowden outlined Alexander's emergency authority to act on imminent cyber threats.

"To be clear, what I can do on my own right now is, within our networks, to launch offensive measures to stop somebody from getting into the networks," Alexander said. "Anything that I want to do outside the networks that is offensive in nature we would have to call the Secretary [of Defense] and the President to get their approval. So there are things that we can do to stop packets in flight, but from our perspective, any actions that's offensive in nature would require the policymakers."

Asked to respond to House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers' comments that the U.S. is losing the cyber war to China, Alexander said, "I think our nation has been significantly impacted with intellectual property, the theft of intellectual property by China and others. That is the most significant transfer of wealth in history."

"Who's taking our information is one of the things I believe the American people would expect me to know," Alexander added. "That's one of my missions. Who's doing this to us and why? … Who's coming after us? We need to know that so we can defend this nation."

In a statement this morning on Edward Snowden's departure from China, the government of Hong Kong said it had "no legal basis to restrict Mr. Snowden from leaving Hong Kong," while also seeking clarification on reports based on Snowden's leaks "about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by U.S. government agencies."

Alexander responded that "we have an interest in those who collect on us, as an intelligence agency," but said that the NSA follows U.S. law in its overseas activities.

"The fact is, what we're trying to do is get the information our nation needs, the foreign intelligence," Alexander said. "I'm confident that we're following the laws that our country has in doing what we do. We have a set of laws that guide how NSA acts. We follow those laws."

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Fire rages, Colo. town braces for long evacuation

Colorado State Patrol officer Jessie Bartunek talks to a motorist at a checkpoint near South Fork, Colo., Sunday, June 23, 2013. A large wildfire near a popular summer retreat in southern Colorado continues to be driven by winds and fueled by dead trees in a drought-stricken area, authorities said Sunday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Wildfire smoke blankets a ridge Sunday, June 23, 2013, near Alpine, Colo. A large wildfire near a popular summer retreat in southern Colorado continues to be driven by winds and fueled by dead trees in a drought-stricken area, authorities said Sunday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

DEL NORTE, Colo. (AP) — A colossal wildfire raging near popular tourist areas of the southwestern Colorado mountains more than doubled in size over the weekend, driven by winds and fueled by dead trees in drought-stricken forest, authorities said Sunday.

The weather has prevented fire crews from making progress against the blaze, which Sunday night was estimated at 114 square miles.

No structures have been lost in the fire, and no injuries have been reported.

Sunday, officials said most of the intense fire activity occurred on unburned areas inside the perimeter of what are technically three separate lightning-sparked fires.

But with heavy winds expected again Monday, the perimeter is expected to grow again, said Pete Blume, a commander with the Rocky Mountain Type 1 Incident Command Team.

Although crews Sunday were able to focus on efforts to protect towns like South Fork, the Wolf Creek ski area and homes along Highway 149, Blume said it doubtful fire fighters will be able to establish any containment lines until there's a break in the hot, dry, windy weather, possibly Tuesday.

They remained optimistic, however, that they can protect South Fork, whose 400 residents and hundreds of summertime visitors were forced to flee on Friday after two of the fires joined and began a fast advance toward the town. The blaze Sunday was two to three miles away, Blume said.

Blume, a commander with the Rocky Mountain Type 1 Incident Command Team, said the wildfire is the worst ever known to hit the Rio Grande National Forest.

"It's not typical to have these kinds of fires here," said Blume, but beetle kill, the 30 to 40 mile an hour winds and extreme drought are "also not the norm."

Firefighters are hoping for a break in the high winds as well as the anticipated July monsoons to help them fight back the flames. Until then, Blume said, "with that much beetle kill and drought we could have every resource in the country here and still not put in a containment line."

Still, fire officials believe portions of the blaze will likely burn all summer in forested, nonresidential areas, with full extinguishment probably months away.

The lightning-sparked blaze started June 5, but its rapid advance Friday prompted the evacuations.

Residents and tourists were settling in for a long wait before they can return to their homes, cabins and RV parks.

"They just said they had no idea how long it would be before we could be back in South Fork," said Mike Duffy, who owns the South Fork Lodge.

Duffy said he and his wife, Mary, were able to get their personal possessions before fleeing fast-advancing flames that officials initially feared would overtake the town. But with the fire still within three miles of South Fork, they are worried about the long-term impact of a prolong evacuation and news reports about the fire raging around the tourism-dependent town.

Summer visitors include many retirees from Texas and Oklahoma who come to the mountains to flee the heat.

South Fork Mayor Kenneth Brooke estimates that between 1,000 to 1,500 people had to flee, including the summer visitors and permanent residents.

More than 600 firefighters were battling the blaze, and more are coming every day. They also focused on newest arm of the fire as it crept through beetle kill toward the historic mining town of Creede, the last silver boom town in Colorado before the industry went bust in the late 1800s.

Elsewhere in Colorado, about a dozen fires also continued to burn. Firefighters were making progress on a 19-square-mile wildfire near Walsenburg in southern Colorado. The fire was 10 percent contained.

And a wildfire in foothills about 30 miles southwest of Denver was expected to be fully contained Sunday evening. That fire burned 511 acres and forced 100 people to leave their homes.

Hatred between Sunnis, Shiites abounds in Mideast

FILE - This April 22, 2009 file photo, shows Iraqi women at the al-Sayda Zeinab shrine in southern Damascus, Syria. Hatreds between Shiites and Sunnis are now more virulent than ever in the Arab world because of Syria's brutal civil war. Hard-line clerics and politicians on both sides have added fuel, depicting the fight as essentially a war of survival for their sect. (AP Photo/Ola Rifai, File)

FILE - This June 14, 2012, file photo shows Syrian security forces at the site where a car bomb exploded near the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab, visible in the background, in a suburb of Damascus, Syria. Hatreds between Shiites and Sunnis are now more virulent than ever in the Arab world because of Syria's brutal civil war. Hard-line clerics and politicians on both sides have added fuel, depicting the fight as essentially a war of survival for their sect. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi, File)

CAIRO (AP) — It's not hard to find stereotypes, caricatures and outright bigotry when talk in the Middle East turns to the tensions between Islam's two main sects.

Shiites are described as devious, power-hungry corruptors of Islam. Sunnis are called extremist, intolerant oppressors.

Hatreds between the two are now more virulent than ever in the Arab world because of Syria's civil war. On Sunday, officials said four Shiites in a village west of Cairo were beaten to death by Sunnis in a sectarian clash unusual for Egypt.

Hard-line clerics and politicians on both sides in the region have added fuel, depicting the fight as essentially a war of survival for their sect.

But among the public, views are complex. Some sincerely see the other side as wrong — whether on matters of faith or politics. Others see the divisions as purely political, created for cynical aims. Even some who view the other sect negatively fear sectarian flames are burning dangerously out of control. There are those who wish for a return to the days, only a decade or two ago, when the differences did not seem so important and the sects got along better, even intermarried.

And some are simply frustrated that there is so much turmoil over a dispute that dates back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century.

"Fourteen centuries after the death of the prophet, in a region full of destruction, killing, occupation, ignorance and disease, you are telling me about Sunnis and Shiites?" scoffs Ismail al-Hamami, a 67-year-old Sunni Palestinian refugee in Gaza. "We are all Muslims. ... You can't ignore the fact that (Shiites) are Muslims."

Associated Press correspondents spoke to Shiites and Sunnis across the region. Amid the variety of viewpoints, they found a public struggling with anger that is increasingly curdling into hatred.

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BACKGROUND

The Sunni-Shiite split is rooted in the question of who should succeed Muhammad in leading Muslims after his death in 632. Shiites say the prophet's cousin and son-in-law Ali was his rightful successor but was cheated when authority went to those the Sunnis call the four "Rightfully Guided Caliphs" — Abu Bakr, Omar and Othman and, finally, Ali.

Sunnis are the majority across the Islamic world. In the Middle East, Shiites have strong majorities inIran, Iraq and Bahrain, with significant communities in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other parts of the Gulf.

Both consider the Quran the word of God. But there are distinctions in theology and religious practice between the two sects.

Some are minor: Shiites pray with their hands by their sides, Sunnis with their hands crossed at their chest or stomach.

Others are significant. Shiites, for example, believe Ali and a string of his descendants, the Imams, had not only rightful political authority after Muhammad but also held a special religious wisdom. Most Shiites believe there were 12 Imams — many of them "martyred" by Sunnis — and the 12th vanished, to one day return and restore justice. Sunnis accuse the Shiites of elevating Ali to the level of Muhammad himself — incorrectly, since Shiites agree that Muhammad was the last of the prophets, a central tenet of Islam.

The bitter disputes of early Islam still resonate. Even secular-minded Shiite parents would never name their child after the resented Abu Bakr, Omar or Othman — or Aisha, a wife of Muhammad, who helped raise a revolt against Ali during his Caliphate. When outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Egypt earlier this year, the sheik of Al-Azhar, the bastion of Sunni theology, told him sharply that if the sects are to get along, Shiites must stop "insulting" the "companions of the prophet."

But only the most hard-core would say those differences are reason enough to hate each other. For that, politics is needed.

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IRAQ

If Syria's war has raised the region's sectarian hatreds, the war in Iraq played a big role in unleashing them. After the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, the long-oppressed Shiite majority there saw a chance to take power. Sunnis feared the repression would flip onto them. The result was vicious sectarian fighting that lasted until 2008: Sunni extremists pulled Shiite pilgrims from buses and gunned them down; Shiite militiamen kidnapped Sunnis, dumping their tortured bodies later.

ABDUL-SATTAR ABDUL-JABAR, 56, is a Sunni cleric who occasionally preaches at the prominent Abu Hanifa mosque in the Sunni-dominated Azamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad. Two of his sons were killed by Shiite militiamen. He blames the United States and Iran for Iraq's strife.

"Right from the beginning, the Americans were trying to create sectarian rifts," he said. "Iran is a country of regional ambitions. It isn't a Shiite country. It's a country with specific schemes and agendas."

Now he fears the strife is returning, and he blames the Shiite-dominated government.

"We feel the government does not consider us part of the Iraqi nation," he said. "There is no magical solution for this. If the Shiites are convinced to change their politicians, that would be a big help."

AHMED SALEH AHMED, 40, a Sunni, runs a construction company in Baghdad mainly employing Shiites. He is married to a Shiite woman. They live in the Azamiyah neighborhood and raise their two daughters and son as Sunnis.

Still, his wife prays with the small clay stone that Shiites — but not Sunnis — set in front of their prayer rugs. She often visits a Shiite shrine in another Baghdad district. Ahmed sometimes helps his wife's family prepare food for Shiite pilgrims during religious ceremonies. But he admits that there sometimes is tension between the families.

"We were able to contain it and solve it in a civilized way," Ahmed said.

Iraqis like to talk politics, he said, and "when things get heated, we tend to change the subject."

When their children ask about sectarian differences, "we do our best to make these ideas as clear as we can for them so they don't get confused," he said. "We try to avoid discussing sectarian issues in front of the children."

Ahmed believes sectarian tensions have been strained because people have abused the democratic ideas emerging from the Arab Spring.

Democracy "needs open-mindedness, forgiveness and an ability to understand the other," he said. "No human being is born believing in democracy. It's like going to school — you have to study first. Democracy should be for people who want to do good things, not for those who are out for revenge."

HUSSEIN AL-RUBAIE, 46, a Shiite, was jailed for two years under Saddam. His Shiite-majority Sadriya district in Baghdad saw considerable bloodshed during the worst of the strife, and he fears it's returning.

"The whole region is in flames and we are all about to be burnt," he said. "We have a lot of people who are ignorant and easily driven by sectarian feelings."

He sees it among his friends, who include Sunnis. "My friends only whisper about sectarian things because they think it is a shame to talk about such matters," al-Rubaie said, "but I am afraid that the day might come when this soft talking would turn to fighting in the street."

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LEBANON

Among some of Lebanon's Shiites, it's fashionable to wear a necklace with a medallion in the shape of the fabled double-bladed sword of Ali. It's a mark of community pride at a time when the Shiite groupHezbollah says the sect is endangered by Sunni extremists in the Syrian uprising.

During Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, the main fight was between Christians and Muslims. But in the past decade, the most dangerous divide has been between Shiites and Sunnis.

For much of Lebanon's existence, Shiites, who make up about a third of the population, were an impoverished underclass beneath the Christians and Sunnis, each roughly a third also. The Shiite resentment helped the rise of the guerrilla force Hezbollah, on whose might the community won greater power. Now, many Sunnis resent Hezbollah's political domination of the government. The 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a Sunni, increased Sunni anger after Hezbollah members were blamed. Since then, both sides have clashed in the streets.

Syria's civil war has fueled those tensions. Lebanon's Sunnis largely back the mainly Sunni rebellion, while Shiites support President Bashar Assad's regime, which is dominated by his Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiism. Hezbollah sent fighters to help Assad fight the rebels, enraging Sunnis region-wide.

RANIA, 51, is a Shiite Lebanese banking executive, married to a Sunni and living in Ras Beirut, one of the capital's few mixed neighborhoods.

When she married, at age 22, "I didn't even know what the difference between Sunnis and Shiites is."

Now she's inclined to support Hezbollah. While not a fan of the hard-line group, she believes that Hezbollah and Syria are targeted because of their stances against Israel. She said her husband is anti-Hezbollah and supports Syria's rebels.

Rania, who gave only her first name because she doesn't want to be stigmatized about her social, religious or marital status, said she doesn't talk politics with her husband to avoid arguments.

"I support one (political) side and he supports the other, but we've found a way to live with it," added Rania, who has a 22-year-old daughter.

She said education plays a big role. "I find that the people who make comments about it are the people who are just ignorant, and ignorance feeds hatred and stereotyping," she added.

KHALED CHALLAH is a 28-year-old Syrian Sunni businessman who has lived for years in Lebanon. He comes from a conservative, religious family but only occasionally goes to mosque. He said the only way he would be able to tell the difference between a Sunni mosque and a Shiite one would be if the cleric talked about Syria in the sermon.

"A Shiite imam would speak against the rebels, and call to resist them, and a Sunni sheik would talk against the government in Syria," he said.

He said he still doesn't understand the Shiites' emotional fervor over the battle of Karbala, in which Ali's son, Hussein, was killed by the armies of the Sunni Ummayad dynasty in the 7th century. Hussein's martyrdom is a defining trauma of their faith, deepening their feeling of oppression. Every year, Shiites around the world mark the battle with processions that turn into festivals of mourning, with men lashing or cutting themselves.

"It means much more to Shiites, this battle's memory, than to Sunnis," Challah said.

He said Sunnis "behave sometimes like they are the only Muslims."

Challah called this "very silly. Sunnis and Shiites come from the same root, they worship the same God."

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IRAN

The Shiite powerhouse of the Middle East is home to a government led by Shiite clerics with oil wealth and a powerful Revolutionary Guard. Tehran has extended its influence in the Arab world, mainly through its alliance with Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.Iran has presented that alliance not as sectarian but as the center of "resistance" against Israel.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies have been trying to stem Iran's influence, in part by warning of the spread of Shiism. Saudi Arabia's hard-line Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam views Shiism as heresy.

REZA TAJABADI, a Shiite cleric in Tehran, blames the Wahhabis — and the related ultra-conservative Salafi movement in Sunni Islam — for stoking sectarian hatred.

"If Wahabis withdrew from creating differences, then Shiites and Sunnis will be able to put aside their minor differences, which are not considerable."

ABOLFATAH DAVATI, another Shiite cleric, points to the historical difference between the two sects. Since Sunnis have been dominant through history, Sunni clerics became subordinate to the rulers. The Shiite clergy, he said, has been independent of power.

"Sunni clerics backed rulers and justified their policies, like the killing of Imam Hussein. Even now, they put their rulers' decision at the top of their agenda," he said.

"In contrast, Shiites have not depended on government, so Sunnis cannot tolerate this and issue religious edicts against them. This increases rifts."

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EGYPT

In a country where the Muslim population is overwhelmingly Sunni, many Egyptians know little about Shiites. The Shiite population is tiny and largely hidden — so secretive that its numbers are not really known. But ultraconservative Salafis, many of whom view Shiites as infidels, have become more politically powerful and more vocal since the 2011 fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. They often preach against Shiism, warning it will spread to Egypt.

MONA MOHAMMED FOUAD is a rarity in Egypt: Her mother is an Iranian Shiite, her father an Egyptian Sunni. She considers herself Sunni.

"People are always surprised and shocked" when they find out her mother is Shiite, said Fouad, 23, who works for a digital marketing company. "But usually as soon as they know, they are very interested and they ask me many questions."

Fouad said her sister has heard work colleagues criticizing Shiites. In her fiance's office they distributed leaflets "telling people to beware of Shiite indoctrination," she added.

"People should read about Shiism. We make fun of foreigners who believe all Muslims are terrorists and we say they are ignorant, but we do the same thing to ourselves," Fouad said. "There is a difference in interpretation, a difference in opinion, but at the end of the day, we believe in the same things."

She told her Sunni fiance from the start that her mother is Shiite. "I told him to tell his family, so if they have any problem with that, we end it immediately."

ANAS AQEEL, a 23-year-old Salafi, spent the first 18 years of his life in Saudi Arabia, where he would sometimes encounter Shiites. "We didn't ever argue over faith. But they alienated me," he said.

"I once saw a Shiite in Saudi Arabia speaking ill of one of the companions of the prophet near his tomb. That one I had to clash with and expel him from the place," Aqeel said.

He worries about Shiites spreading their faith. While he said not all Shiites are alike, he added that "some of them deviate in the Quran and speak badly of the prophet's companions. If someone is wrong and ... he insists on his wrong concept, then we cannot call him a Muslim."

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PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Palestinian Muslims are also almost all Sunnis. Their main connection to the Shiite world has Hamas' alliance with Iran. But those ties were strained when Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, broke its connections with Syria because of the civil war.

AHMED MESLEH, a 28-year-old blogger from the West Bank town of Ramallah, says he met Shiites on a trip to Lebanon and encounters them via Facebook. But some have de-friended him because of his online comments.

"If we take Shiites from a religious point of view, then we can describe Shiites as a sect that has gone astray from the true doctrine of Islam. I consider them a bigger threat to Muslims and Islam than Jews and Israel," Mesleh said.

He cited the Shiites' processions mourning Hussein's death, saying: "The way they whip themselves, it's irrational."

The Middle East conflict "is in its core a religious conflict. The Shiites want to destroy Islam. In Lebanon, they are the ones controlling the situation, and the ones who are causing the sectarian conflict."

ISMAIL AL-HAMAMI, a 67-year-old Palestinian refugee in Gaza's Shati camp, said politics not religion is driving sectarian tensions.

"In Gaza, Iran used to support the resistance with weapons. Now they support Assad. ... In Iraq, they (Shiites) executed Saddam Hussein, who was a Sunni, and they took over the country with the help of the Americans. Now they are working against America in Iran and Syria."

"So is that related to religion? It's all about politics."

The beneficiaries of sectarianism, he said, are "those who want to sell arms to both sides ... those who want to keep Arab and Muslim countries living in the dark. The beneficiaries are the occupation (Israel) and the people who sell us religious slogans."

"God knows who is right or wrong."

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AP correspondents Adam Schreck and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Barbara Surk and Zeina Karam in Beirut, Dalia Nammari in Ramallah and Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Tony G. Gabriel and Mariam Rizk in Cairo and Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.