CBS Evening News

Hope slides in Iraq along with confidence in al-Maliki

As clashes rage across Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's leadership continues to be called into question.

At Friday prayers, the country's top Shiite cleric called for a new government to be set up quickly to "remedy past mistakes," a thinly veiled criticism of Maliki, who has been accused of pursuing an anti-Sunni agenda.

CBS News traveled across town to visit a Sunni community in Baghdad. Getting into the neighborhood, like many Sunni neighborhoods, is incredibly difficult because the entire area is surrounded by large blast walls and there's only one way in and out and that's guarded by a major checkpoint.

A taxi driver named Ali, along with his wife and daughter, told CBS News that Shiite militias have recently begun a campaign of intimidation.

"I swear, the situation in Sunni neighborhoods in general is not good," he said. "My brother was arrested a month ago and we can't find him. The day before yesterday they dropped a dead body on the highway near our neighborhood."

Ali said he and his family are trapped. If he had enough money, they would leave the country.

"I swear, there is no future in Iraq."

If the Iraqi government is going to win the battle against ISIS, it will need to win back the allegiance of people like Ali and his family. That will mean more Sunnis in the government and fewer sectarian militias on the streets.