Friday, September 15, 2006
Sunni leader calls for government crackdown on militias
Politics
Following a pledge Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made to disarm militias and bring them into the political process, Iraqi politicians wonder how and when he will honour the pledge. In a statement relased yesterday, Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front, called for the government to disarm militias and warned that the practices of well-known armed militias have pushed the country to the brink of civil war. He denounced ongoing crimes committed by militias in Diyala, where villages and mosques in the area came under attack while security bodies kept their suspicious silence. He added that the militias are well known to the government.
COMMENT: It is likely Dulaimi is referring to the Mahdi Militia (MM), the militant arm of the Office of Moqtada al-Sadr (OMS) which is part of the largest Shia bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA). The MM has been accused of sectarian killings which al-Sadr denies. He is possibly also referring to the Badr Corps, the Iranian-trained militant wing of the Shia Supreme Council for Islamic Revoltion in Iraq (SCIRI) - also part of the UIA, led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. The Badr Corps has infiltrated the mainly Shia Ministry of Interior and is also suspected of sectarian killings. Both militias have infiltrated security services in the south and vie for power. COMMENT ENDS.
