H
Harry Hope
Guest
Iraqi forces battling the Mahdi Army called in U.S. airstrikes
Saturday in Basra, and two American soldiers were killed in a mostly
Shiite area of east Baghdad.
..................................................................................................
Already, U.S. officers have reported an increase in the number of
attacks against them in Baghdad, where soldiers had benefited from the
Mahdi Army's tacit cooperation.
"It would be disastrous if the United States ended up as supporters on
a crackdown on the Sadrists for reasons mainly to do with internal
Shiite politics," said Reidar Visser, editor of the southern
Iraq-related website historiae.org.
....................................................................................................
The officials' credibility has been diminished by government failings
since the U.S.-led invasion -- notably endemic corruption, the lack of
security and abysmal public services.
...........................................................................................
The animosity is also rooted in a historic rivalry between the Sadr
family, long seen as a champion of the underclass, and the Supreme
Council's senior leader, Sheik Abdelaziz Hakim, son of a conservative
grand ayatollah, whose family traditionally enjoyed the support of the
country's Shiite merchant class.
....................................................................................................
After the cleric's cease-fire in August, U.S. officers in Baghdad cut
deals with moderate elements of the Mahdi Army to stabilize the
capital's western neighborhoods.
Officers were even given lists of Mahdi Army fighters they could not
arrest.
Now, the same Shiite militiamen are battling U.S. forces again.
Abu Ali, a member of the Sadr movement in the capital's New Baghdad
area, had been helping enforce Sadr's cease-fire, but said his local
office had returned to planting homemade bombs in case U.S. soldiers
dared to enter their area.
"We have called for jihad," Abu Ali said.
"The government came with the occupier and supports the occupiers and
they know the Americans will protect them. We are fighting to get our
rights."
From The Los Angeles Times, 3/30/08:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-shiites30mar30,1,1596179.story
In Iraq, U.S. caught in middle of Shiite rivalry
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD --
The biggest surprise about the raging battles that erupted last week
in southern Iraq was not that the combatants were fellow Shiites, but
that it took this long.
Enmity has long festered between the two sides:
one a ruling party that has struggled against the widespread
perception that it gained power on the back of the U.S. occupation,
the other a populist movement that has positioned itself as a critic
of the U.S.-backed new order.
As they vie for power before October provincial elections that will
determine who controls the oil-rich south, the stakes are high not
only for the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the largest Shiite faction
in the Iraqi coalition government, and the Mahdi Army, the militia
loyal to cleric Muqtada Sadr.
The conflict also poses great difficulties for the Americans, who are
widely seen as siding with the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and Prime
Minister Nouri Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party against Sadr.
__________________________________________________
Trapped in a civil war;
4,007 American troops are dead, 29,451 are wounded
Harry
General Sanchez: "There is no question that America is living a
nightmare with no end in sight"
Saturday in Basra, and two American soldiers were killed in a mostly
Shiite area of east Baghdad.
..................................................................................................
Already, U.S. officers have reported an increase in the number of
attacks against them in Baghdad, where soldiers had benefited from the
Mahdi Army's tacit cooperation.
"It would be disastrous if the United States ended up as supporters on
a crackdown on the Sadrists for reasons mainly to do with internal
Shiite politics," said Reidar Visser, editor of the southern
Iraq-related website historiae.org.
....................................................................................................
The officials' credibility has been diminished by government failings
since the U.S.-led invasion -- notably endemic corruption, the lack of
security and abysmal public services.
...........................................................................................
The animosity is also rooted in a historic rivalry between the Sadr
family, long seen as a champion of the underclass, and the Supreme
Council's senior leader, Sheik Abdelaziz Hakim, son of a conservative
grand ayatollah, whose family traditionally enjoyed the support of the
country's Shiite merchant class.
....................................................................................................
After the cleric's cease-fire in August, U.S. officers in Baghdad cut
deals with moderate elements of the Mahdi Army to stabilize the
capital's western neighborhoods.
Officers were even given lists of Mahdi Army fighters they could not
arrest.
Now, the same Shiite militiamen are battling U.S. forces again.
Abu Ali, a member of the Sadr movement in the capital's New Baghdad
area, had been helping enforce Sadr's cease-fire, but said his local
office had returned to planting homemade bombs in case U.S. soldiers
dared to enter their area.
"We have called for jihad," Abu Ali said.
"The government came with the occupier and supports the occupiers and
they know the Americans will protect them. We are fighting to get our
rights."
From The Los Angeles Times, 3/30/08:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fg-shiites30mar30,1,1596179.story
In Iraq, U.S. caught in middle of Shiite rivalry
By Ned Parker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD --
The biggest surprise about the raging battles that erupted last week
in southern Iraq was not that the combatants were fellow Shiites, but
that it took this long.
Enmity has long festered between the two sides:
one a ruling party that has struggled against the widespread
perception that it gained power on the back of the U.S. occupation,
the other a populist movement that has positioned itself as a critic
of the U.S.-backed new order.
As they vie for power before October provincial elections that will
determine who controls the oil-rich south, the stakes are high not
only for the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the largest Shiite faction
in the Iraqi coalition government, and the Mahdi Army, the militia
loyal to cleric Muqtada Sadr.
The conflict also poses great difficulties for the Americans, who are
widely seen as siding with the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and Prime
Minister Nouri Maliki's Islamic Dawa Party against Sadr.
__________________________________________________
Trapped in a civil war;
4,007 American troops are dead, 29,451 are wounded
Harry
General Sanchez: "There is no question that America is living a
nightmare with no end in sight"
