Friday, August 24, 2007
Al Qaeda kidnaps women and children in attack on villages
Security
(Gulf News) - Al Qaida fighters kidnapped 15 Iraqi women and children after rival Sunni militants repelled their attack on two villages in a fierce battle yesterday in which 32 people were killed, police said. The fighting, rare on such a large scale, underscored the growing split between Sunni militant groups and Al Qaida that US forces have sought to exploit as they try to quell sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands.
About 200 Al Qaida fighters raided the villages of Shaikh Tamim and Ebrahim Yehia in restive Diyala province, north of Baghdad, early yesterday after launching a mortar attack on the area, police said. The attack came despite a US offensive in Diyala targeting Al Qaida. The US troops launched an operation in June to oust fighters who had taken over large parts of the provincial capital, Baquba. Many escaped to fight on.
Brigadier-General Ali Delayan, police chief of Baquba, told Reuters that 22 residents had been killed in the fighting along with 10 Al Qaida fighters. Several wounded residents said villagers were loyal to the Sunni insurgent group, the 1920 Revolution Brigade. Delayan said the attackers had escaped with eight women and seven children as hostages.
A mosque that served the two villages was destroyed in the fighting and its imam was among those killed, he added. Delayan said Al Qaida attackers mortared the villages before storming into them. Rocket-propelled grenades were used in the fighting, in which three houses were destroyed. He said the gun battle with fighters loyal to the 1920 Revolution Brigade, which has recently distanced itself from Al Qaida, was triggered by the execution of four men, including the mosque imam.
Police said they arrested 22 of the attackers. The Shiite-led government and the US military still view Al Qaida as the main threat to peace in Iraq, despite the fact that is fighters make up only a small percentage of Sunni militants and many of its leaders have been killed or captured.
About 200 Al Qaida fighters raided the villages of Shaikh Tamim and Ebrahim Yehia in restive Diyala province, north of Baghdad, early yesterday after launching a mortar attack on the area, police said. The attack came despite a US offensive in Diyala targeting Al Qaida. The US troops launched an operation in June to oust fighters who had taken over large parts of the provincial capital, Baquba. Many escaped to fight on.
Brigadier-General Ali Delayan, police chief of Baquba, told Reuters that 22 residents had been killed in the fighting along with 10 Al Qaida fighters. Several wounded residents said villagers were loyal to the Sunni insurgent group, the 1920 Revolution Brigade. Delayan said the attackers had escaped with eight women and seven children as hostages.
A mosque that served the two villages was destroyed in the fighting and its imam was among those killed, he added. Delayan said Al Qaida attackers mortared the villages before storming into them. Rocket-propelled grenades were used in the fighting, in which three houses were destroyed. He said the gun battle with fighters loyal to the 1920 Revolution Brigade, which has recently distanced itself from Al Qaida, was triggered by the execution of four men, including the mosque imam.
Police said they arrested 22 of the attackers. The Shiite-led government and the US military still view Al Qaida as the main threat to peace in Iraq, despite the fact that is fighters make up only a small percentage of Sunni militants and many of its leaders have been killed or captured.
COMMENT: This act will only heighten violence between Sunni militants, tribes and Al Qaeda and is likely to turn more people against them. Al Qaeda have nor previously kidnapped such a large number of women and children only. The fate of the kidnapped women and children will also affect the outcome. COMMENT ENDS.
Labels: abduction, Al Qaeda, Brigadier-General Ali Delayan, Diyala, Ebrahim Yehia, RPGs, Shaikh Tamim, Sunni militants, the 1920 Revolution Brigades
Thursday, August 16, 2007
U.S. forces launch air assault south of Baghdad
Military
(Reuters) - U.S. forces launched an airborne assault on a desert compound south of Baghdad on Thursday, the first air strike in a major new offensive. A company of airborne infantry struck villas in search of Sunni Arab militants. The assault was a first part of operation Marne Husky, itself part of a countrywide push announced this week against both Sunni Arab and Shi'ite militants.
Major-General Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. forces south of Baghdad, told Reuters on Wednesday that about 4,000 of his men would be involved in the operation and would use air strikes and air-mobile infantry units to attack insurgents in the Tigris River valley south of the Iraqi capital.Pointing on a map to the palm groves south of Baghdad in an area known as Arab Jabour, he said his troops had already pushed out many Sunni Arab militants in the past month and now planned to strike those who escaped southwards.
Washington sent an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq this year and has pushed them from big bases into neighborhood outposts in an effort to reduce sectarian violence and defeat both Sunni Arab insurgents and hostile Shi'ite militia. Operation Marne Husky involves sending infantry into territory where U.S. forces had not had a presence in the past, in an area south of Baghdad U.S. troops call the "Triangle of Death."
"Tonight it's going to be the first time in about a year they've seen coalition forces. They've had aircraft flying overhead. But they can't hide from infantry kicking down the doors," Lynch said. The U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, is due to report to Congress next month on the success of his strategy. This week U.S. forces announced the launch of a countrywide offensive, operation Phantom Strike.
On Tuesday they announced the first part of Phantom Strike, known as operation Lightning Hammer, which began with an airborne assault on the Diyala River valley north of the capital. A spokesman for the unit said the soldiers were airlifted out before dawn having captured five suspected militants, destroyed homemade explosives and uncovered a cache of weapons.
Major-General Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. forces south of Baghdad, told Reuters on Wednesday that about 4,000 of his men would be involved in the operation and would use air strikes and air-mobile infantry units to attack insurgents in the Tigris River valley south of the Iraqi capital.Pointing on a map to the palm groves south of Baghdad in an area known as Arab Jabour, he said his troops had already pushed out many Sunni Arab militants in the past month and now planned to strike those who escaped southwards.
Washington sent an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq this year and has pushed them from big bases into neighborhood outposts in an effort to reduce sectarian violence and defeat both Sunni Arab insurgents and hostile Shi'ite militia. Operation Marne Husky involves sending infantry into territory where U.S. forces had not had a presence in the past, in an area south of Baghdad U.S. troops call the "Triangle of Death."
"Tonight it's going to be the first time in about a year they've seen coalition forces. They've had aircraft flying overhead. But they can't hide from infantry kicking down the doors," Lynch said. The U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, is due to report to Congress next month on the success of his strategy. This week U.S. forces announced the launch of a countrywide offensive, operation Phantom Strike.
On Tuesday they announced the first part of Phantom Strike, known as operation Lightning Hammer, which began with an airborne assault on the Diyala River valley north of the capital. A spokesman for the unit said the soldiers were airlifted out before dawn having captured five suspected militants, destroyed homemade explosives and uncovered a cache of weapons.
Labels: air assault, Arab Jabour, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Marne Husky, Operation Lightning Hammer, Operation Phantom Strike, Shiite militias, Sunni militants, U.S. forces
Monday, July 30, 2007
Petraeus and al-Maliki clash
Politics
(AP) -- A key aide says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's relations with Gen. David Petraeus are so poor the Iraqi leader may ask Washington to withdraw the overall U.S. commander from his Baghdad post. Iraq's foreign minister calls the relationship "difficult." Petraeus, who says their ties are "very good," acknowledges expressing his "full range of emotions" at times with al-Maliki. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who meets with both at least weekly, concedes "sometimes there are sporty exchanges."
It seems less a clash of personality than of policy. The Shiite Muslim prime minister has reacted most sharply to the American general's tactic of enlisting Sunni militants, presumably including past killers of Iraqi Shiites, as allies in the fight against al-Qaida here. An associate said al-Maliki once, in discussion with President Bush, even threatened to counter this by arming Shiite militias.
A tangle of issues confronts them, none with easy solutions:
- Al-Maliki, a Shiite activist who spent the Saddam Hussein years in exile, hotly objects to the recent U.S. practice of recruiting tribal groups tied to the Sunni insurgency for the fight against the Sunni extremists of al-Qaida, deemed "Enemy No. 1" by the Americans. His loud complaints have won little but a U.S. pledge to let al-Maliki's security apparatus screen the recruits.
- Aides say the Iraqi leader also has spoken bitterly about delivery delays of promised U.S. weapons and equipment for his forces.
- Petraeus, meanwhile, must deal with an Iraqi military and police force, nominally under al-Maliki's control, that often acts out of sectarian, namely Shiite, interests, and not national Iraqi interests. He faces a significant challenge in persuading al-Maliki to shed his ties to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who runs the Mahdi Army militia.
- On the political front, Crocker is grappling with the prime minister's seeming foot-dragging or ineffectiveness in pushing through an oil-industry law and other legislation seen as critical benchmarks by the U.S. government. Reporting to Congress in September, Crocker may have to explain such Iraqi inaction while U.S. troops are fighting and dying to give al-Maliki political breathing space.
First word of strained relations began leaking out with consistency earlier this month. Sami al-Askari, a key aide to al-Maliki and a member of the prime minister's Dawa Party, said the policy of incorporating one-time Sunni insurgents into the security forces shows Petraeus has a "real bias and it bothers the Shiites," whose communities have been targeted by Sunnis in Iraq's sectarian conflict.
"It is possible that we may demand his removal," al-Askari said.
A lawmaker from the al-Sadr bloc, who wouldn't allow use of his name because of the political sensitivity of the matter, said al-Maliki once told Petraeus: "I can't deal with you anymore. I will ask for someone else to replace you." Such a request isn't likely to get much of a hearing in Washington, where the Bush administration presents Petraeus as one general who can improve the Iraq situation.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Newsweek magazine the Petraeus-al-Maliki relationship is "difficult." For one thing, the Americans retain control of the Iraqi military. "The prime minister cannot just pick up the phone and have Iraqi army units do what he says. Maliki needs more leverage," Zebari said.
The prime minister has complained to President Bush about the policy of arming Sunnis, said the Sadrist lawmaker. "He told Bush that if Petraeus continues doing that, he would arm Shiite militias. Bush told al-Maliki to calm down," according to this parliament member, who said he was told of the exchange by al-Maliki. In Washington, White House officials who have sat in on Bush's video conferences with al-Maliki denied that exchange took place.
It seems less a clash of personality than of policy. The Shiite Muslim prime minister has reacted most sharply to the American general's tactic of enlisting Sunni militants, presumably including past killers of Iraqi Shiites, as allies in the fight against al-Qaida here. An associate said al-Maliki once, in discussion with President Bush, even threatened to counter this by arming Shiite militias.
A tangle of issues confronts them, none with easy solutions:
- Al-Maliki, a Shiite activist who spent the Saddam Hussein years in exile, hotly objects to the recent U.S. practice of recruiting tribal groups tied to the Sunni insurgency for the fight against the Sunni extremists of al-Qaida, deemed "Enemy No. 1" by the Americans. His loud complaints have won little but a U.S. pledge to let al-Maliki's security apparatus screen the recruits.
- Aides say the Iraqi leader also has spoken bitterly about delivery delays of promised U.S. weapons and equipment for his forces.
- Petraeus, meanwhile, must deal with an Iraqi military and police force, nominally under al-Maliki's control, that often acts out of sectarian, namely Shiite, interests, and not national Iraqi interests. He faces a significant challenge in persuading al-Maliki to shed his ties to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who runs the Mahdi Army militia.
- On the political front, Crocker is grappling with the prime minister's seeming foot-dragging or ineffectiveness in pushing through an oil-industry law and other legislation seen as critical benchmarks by the U.S. government. Reporting to Congress in September, Crocker may have to explain such Iraqi inaction while U.S. troops are fighting and dying to give al-Maliki political breathing space.
First word of strained relations began leaking out with consistency earlier this month. Sami al-Askari, a key aide to al-Maliki and a member of the prime minister's Dawa Party, said the policy of incorporating one-time Sunni insurgents into the security forces shows Petraeus has a "real bias and it bothers the Shiites," whose communities have been targeted by Sunnis in Iraq's sectarian conflict.
"It is possible that we may demand his removal," al-Askari said.
A lawmaker from the al-Sadr bloc, who wouldn't allow use of his name because of the political sensitivity of the matter, said al-Maliki once told Petraeus: "I can't deal with you anymore. I will ask for someone else to replace you." Such a request isn't likely to get much of a hearing in Washington, where the Bush administration presents Petraeus as one general who can improve the Iraq situation.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told Newsweek magazine the Petraeus-al-Maliki relationship is "difficult." For one thing, the Americans retain control of the Iraqi military. "The prime minister cannot just pick up the phone and have Iraqi army units do what he says. Maliki needs more leverage," Zebari said.
The prime minister has complained to President Bush about the policy of arming Sunnis, said the Sadrist lawmaker. "He told Bush that if Petraeus continues doing that, he would arm Shiite militias. Bush told al-Maliki to calm down," according to this parliament member, who said he was told of the exchange by al-Maliki. In Washington, White House officials who have sat in on Bush's video conferences with al-Maliki denied that exchange took place.
Labels: Al Qaeda, General David Petraeus, Hoshyar Zibari, Nouri Al-Maliki, Ryan Crocker, Sami al-Askari, Shiite militias, Sunni militants
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Al-sadr in talks with Sunni tribal leaders, Sunni militants
Security, Politics, Tribal
(IPS) - Nationalist Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's bid to unite Sunnis and Shiites on the basis of a common demand for withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces, reported last weekend by the Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan, seems likely to get a positive response from Sunni armed resistance. An account given Pentagon officials by a military officer recently returned from Iraq suggests that Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar province, who have generally reflected the views of the Sunni armed resistance there, are open to working with Sadr.
According to Raghavan's report on May 20, talks between Sadr's representatives and Sunni leaders, including leaders of Sunni armed resistance factions, first began in April. A commander of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, Abu Aja Naemi, confirmed to Raghavan that his organisation had been in discussions with Sadr's representatives. Sadr's aides say he was encouraged to launch the new cross-sectarian initiative by the increasingly violent opposition from nationalist Sunni insurgents to the jihadists aligned with al Qaeda. One of his top aides, Ahmed Shaibani, recalled that the George W. Bush administration was arguing that a timetable was unacceptable because of the danger of al Qaeda taking advantage of a withdrawal.
Shaibani told Raghavan that sectarian peace could be advanced if both Sadr's Mahdi Army and Sunni insurgent groups could unite to weaken al Qaeda. Raghavan reports that the cross-sectarian united front strategy was facilitated by the fact that Shaibani had befriended members of Sunni nationalist insurgent groups while he was held in U.S. detention centres from 2004 through 2006. Now Shaibani, who heads a "reconciliation committee" for Sadr, is well positioned to gain the trust of those Sunni organisations. The talks with Sunni resistance leaders have been coordinated with a series of other moves by Sadr since early February.
Although many members of Sadr's Mahdi Army have been involved in sectarian killings and intimidation of Sunnis in Baghdad, Sadr has taken what appears to be a decisive step to break with those in his movement who have been linked to sectarian violence. Over the past three months, he has expelled at least 600 men from the Mahdi Army who were accused of murder and other violations of Sadr's policy, according to Raghavan.
The massive demonstration against the occupation mounted in Najaf by Sadr's organisation on Apr. 9, which Iraqi and foreign observers estimated at tens or even hundreds of thousands of people, was apparently timed to coincide with his initiative in opening talks with the Sunnis. The demonstration not only showed that Sadr could mobilise crowds comparable to the largest ever seen in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, but also made clear Sadr's commitment to transcending sectarian interests.
The demonstrators carried Iraqi flags instead of pictures of Sadr or other Shiite symbols. It also included a small contingent of members of the Sunni-based Islamic Party of Iraq. Sadr's decision in mid-April to pull his representatives out of the al-Maliki government also appears to have been aimed in part at clearing the way for an agreement with the Sunni insurgents. Leaders of those organisations have said they would not accept the U.S.-sponsored government in any peace negotiations with the United States.
The officer also reported that Sunni tribal sheiks have explicitly disavowed the notion that Sadr is a pawn of the Iranians, insisting instead that he doesn't like either Iran or the newly-renamed Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, which was created in Iran and supported by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The sheiks have warned their U.S. military contacts against aggressive military actions against Sadr's followers in Sadr City during the troop surge, according to the account given by the special ops officer.
They said Sadr hopes such provocative United States actions will ultimately result in a new Shiite resistance war against U.S. forces, and they urge swift withdrawal to avoid that outcome. Sadr's project for a Sunni-Shiite united front against both al Qaeda and U.S. occupation offers a potential basis for an eventual settlement of the sectarian civil war in Iraq as well as for U.S. withdrawal. But it could also be the basis for a new and more deadly phase of fighting if Sadr returns once more to military resistance.
Labels: Abu Aja Naemi, Al Qaeda, Iraqi Islamic Party, Mahdi Army, Moqtada Al-Sadr, Sunni militants, Sunni tribal leaders, the 1920 Revolution Brigades
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Sunni armed groups flee from Anbar to Mosul
Insurgency
(Kurdish Globe) - As tribal leaders and Sheiks in Anbar Province declare war on Al-Qaeda and other Iraqi Sunni armed groups battle them, Al-Qaeda is heading to Mosul Province, as witnessed by the increasing level of violence in the northern Iraq region. A member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's (KDP) headquarters in Mosul city stated that insurgents distributed threatening leaflets there on Saturday, May 5, stating that they will launch attacks on Kurdish political party offices in the city.
"They (insurgents) said they will attack the offices belonging to Kurdish political parties, assassinate Kurdish officials, and launch suicide attacks on Kurdish checkpoints in the city," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject. Massoud Barzani, the President of Kurdistan Region, leads the KDP. According to the source, the same day the threatening leaflets were distributed an unknown gunmen killed a Kurdish citizen in the Arbaji neighborhood in Mosul, and the body of a Kurdish citizen was found after unknown gunmen in Shangal district kidnapped him.
Ali Karim, a Kurd, who fled from Mosul city three months ago due to attacks and threats against Kurdish people in the city, accuses former members of Baath Party and Arabs from other countries of attacking Kurds in the city. "Former Members of Baath Party and Arabs from other countries are responsible for most of the majority horrific attacks; they don't have any faith for the city and Iraq," said Karim in an angry tone.
Last month, on April 26, double suicide car bombs and an insurgent wearing a suicide belt attacked two KDP offices in the Zumar area, 50 km northwest of Mosul city, killing 3 and wounding 13 Peshmergas (Kurdish fighters).
An official at the Joint Coordination Office in Mosul Province stated that, during the last week, a suicide car bomb exploded, 64 unidentified bodies were found, 29 roadside bombs exploded, 23 mortar shells reigned mostly on security centers in the city, and 23 clashes erupted between Iraqi forces and unknown gunmen. The source did not mention the number of statistical dead and wounded and assassination operations by acts of violence in the city during the current week and last week.
Additionally in April, said the source, 241 unidentified bodies were found in Mosul Province, 137 roadside bomb exploded, 123 armed accidents occurred, 93 clashes erupted between Iraqi forces and armed groups, 14 car bombs exploded, and 9 kidnapping cases were reported.
Brigadier Salim al Hajj, head of Mosul City Council, said that the level of violence in Mosul Province has risen because tribal leaders in Anbar Province have declared war against terrorist groups, particularly Al-Qaeda, causing most of the terrorists to flee Anbar Province and head to Mosul Province. Insurgents accuse the Kurds, particularly Kurdish political parties and Peshmerga forces, of being American allies.
"They (insurgents) said they will attack the offices belonging to Kurdish political parties, assassinate Kurdish officials, and launch suicide attacks on Kurdish checkpoints in the city," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject. Massoud Barzani, the President of Kurdistan Region, leads the KDP. According to the source, the same day the threatening leaflets were distributed an unknown gunmen killed a Kurdish citizen in the Arbaji neighborhood in Mosul, and the body of a Kurdish citizen was found after unknown gunmen in Shangal district kidnapped him.
Ali Karim, a Kurd, who fled from Mosul city three months ago due to attacks and threats against Kurdish people in the city, accuses former members of Baath Party and Arabs from other countries of attacking Kurds in the city. "Former Members of Baath Party and Arabs from other countries are responsible for most of the majority horrific attacks; they don't have any faith for the city and Iraq," said Karim in an angry tone.
Last month, on April 26, double suicide car bombs and an insurgent wearing a suicide belt attacked two KDP offices in the Zumar area, 50 km northwest of Mosul city, killing 3 and wounding 13 Peshmergas (Kurdish fighters).
An official at the Joint Coordination Office in Mosul Province stated that, during the last week, a suicide car bomb exploded, 64 unidentified bodies were found, 29 roadside bombs exploded, 23 mortar shells reigned mostly on security centers in the city, and 23 clashes erupted between Iraqi forces and unknown gunmen. The source did not mention the number of statistical dead and wounded and assassination operations by acts of violence in the city during the current week and last week.
Additionally in April, said the source, 241 unidentified bodies were found in Mosul Province, 137 roadside bomb exploded, 123 armed accidents occurred, 93 clashes erupted between Iraqi forces and armed groups, 14 car bombs exploded, and 9 kidnapping cases were reported.
Brigadier Salim al Hajj, head of Mosul City Council, said that the level of violence in Mosul Province has risen because tribal leaders in Anbar Province have declared war against terrorist groups, particularly Al-Qaeda, causing most of the terrorists to flee Anbar Province and head to Mosul Province. Insurgents accuse the Kurds, particularly Kurdish political parties and Peshmerga forces, of being American allies.
Labels: Al Anbar, Baathists, Brigadier Salim al Hajj, KDP, Mosul, Sunni militants
Monday, April 02, 2007
Extremists use violence to drive further wedge between Sunnis and Shias
Security
A wave of sectarian attacks that swept Iraq last week and this weekend is giving new steam to hard-liners of all stripes. From mosques to party headquarters, extremists have seized on the events to drive a wedge further between Shiite and Sunni, laying down tough challenges to US and Iraqi forces. At least 600 Iraqis died in the violence last week, the deadliest period since the Baghdad security plan started in February.
While US and Iraqi officials say that Baghdad is quieter, violence has grown outside the capital. Bombings in Tal Afar provoked Shiite policemen to kill dozens of Sunnis in retaliation. Insurgents targeted other Shiite areas, and in Mosul on Sunday bombs exploded at an Iraqi Army base. In March, some 1,861 Iraqis were killed, 216 more than in February.
The surge in attacks is part of a bid by militant Sunnis to undermine the Shiite-led government, says Joost Hiltermann, an analyst with the International Crisis Group (ICG) based in Amman, Jordan. "The takfeeris have stepped up their attacks to show that they control the streets and do whatever they want," he says referring to Sunnis who consider Shiites infidels and attack them.
Mr. Hiltermann also says Sunni militants want to provoke Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army to retaliate. That, he says, would expose them to US forces that have been pursuing and arresting several prominent members of the Mahdi Army. The militia is implicated in sectarian killing and accused of using Iranian-made bombs against US troops. While the sectarian vitriol appeared to reach new heights over the weekend, US lawmakers who were in Iraq Sunday said there was indeed progress as a result of the Baghdad security plan.
"The American people are not getting the full picture of what's happening here. They're not getting the full picture of the drop in murders, the establishment of security outposts throughout the city, the situation in Anbar Province, the deployment of additional Iraqi brigades that are performing well, and other signs of progress having been made," said Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential hopeful from Arizona.
US commander Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement Friday that Al Qaeda elements in Iraq were carrying out "barbaric actions" to fuel sectarian strife and undermine the "successes" of improving Baghdad security.
While US and Iraqi officials say that Baghdad is quieter, violence has grown outside the capital. Bombings in Tal Afar provoked Shiite policemen to kill dozens of Sunnis in retaliation. Insurgents targeted other Shiite areas, and in Mosul on Sunday bombs exploded at an Iraqi Army base. In March, some 1,861 Iraqis were killed, 216 more than in February.
The surge in attacks is part of a bid by militant Sunnis to undermine the Shiite-led government, says Joost Hiltermann, an analyst with the International Crisis Group (ICG) based in Amman, Jordan. "The takfeeris have stepped up their attacks to show that they control the streets and do whatever they want," he says referring to Sunnis who consider Shiites infidels and attack them.
Mr. Hiltermann also says Sunni militants want to provoke Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army to retaliate. That, he says, would expose them to US forces that have been pursuing and arresting several prominent members of the Mahdi Army. The militia is implicated in sectarian killing and accused of using Iranian-made bombs against US troops. While the sectarian vitriol appeared to reach new heights over the weekend, US lawmakers who were in Iraq Sunday said there was indeed progress as a result of the Baghdad security plan.
"The American people are not getting the full picture of what's happening here. They're not getting the full picture of the drop in murders, the establishment of security outposts throughout the city, the situation in Anbar Province, the deployment of additional Iraqi brigades that are performing well, and other signs of progress having been made," said Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential hopeful from Arizona.
US commander Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement Friday that Al Qaeda elements in Iraq were carrying out "barbaric actions" to fuel sectarian strife and undermine the "successes" of improving Baghdad security.
Labels: Mahdi Army, sectarian violence, Sunni militants
