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Sunnis build up their own militia in Iraq
7.2.2006
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BAGHDAD (Reuters)
- Sunni Arabs have formed their own militia to
counter Shi'ite and Kurdish forces as part of an
attempt to regain influence they lost after Saddam
Hussein was toppled.
The so-called ``Anbar Revolutionaries'' have emerged
from a split in the anti-U.S. insurgency, which
included al Qaeda.
They are a new addition to a network of militias
that have thrived in Iraq's bloody chaos and are
tied to the country's leading ethnic and political
parties, now negotiating the formation of a
coalition government after the December 15 election,
the second such polls since the 2003 U.S. invasion
of Iraq.
The newly-organized militia is made up mostly of
Saddam loyalists leading an insurgency against U.S.
and Iraqi government forces, Iraqi Islamists and
other nationalists.
Sunni officials said Sunni rebels first decided to
reorganize their forces into a militia after their
tactical alliance with al Qaeda, who are also
Sunnis, unraveled when al Qaeda bombs began killing
fellow Sunnis in recent months.
But a key motive behind the militia's emergence is
to have a force on the ground to confront the
Shi'ite Badr Brigades, whom the Sunnis accuse of
killing and torturing members of their sect in death
squads sanctioned by the government, the officials
added.
``The Anbar Revolutionaries are here to stay, we
need them to protect the people,'' one Sunni Arab
official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
``Sunnis do not have the Shi'ite Badr (Brigades) or
the Kurdish peshmerga. In these times when sectarian
tension is high, such a force is needed.''
The Anbar Revolutionaries are likely to further
hamper the Iraqi government's effort to impose its
authority and curb rising sectarian strife between
Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds.
A government source said although the original aim
of the force was to fight al Qaeda, it was hard to
predict how it would develop.
Sunni officials familiar with the militia say its
numbers are in the hundreds and it will be used for
``defensive'' purposes only.
``It is our right to defend ourselves,'' another
Sunni official said.
NEW STATUS QUO
Sunni Arabs, once dominant under Saddam, watched
Shi'ites and Kurds sweep to power when the Sunnis
boycotted last January's election. But Sunni
political fortunes improved after they won seats in
parliament in the latest vote.
While fighting for cabinet positions, Sunnis have
embarked simultaneously on a strategy of loosening
the grip of the much larger Badr Brigades, and to a
lesser extent the Kurdish peshmergas, in a country
where militias often blend in with the security
forces.
Badr officials and the government deny the Sunni
accusations, and the authorities have vowed to
investigate abuses in the battle against a Sunni
insurgency that has killed thousands of Iraqi
security forces and mostly Shi'ite civilians.
The group has changed its name to the Badr
Organization but Iraqis still refer to it as the
Badr Brigades, after the Iranian-trained fighters
who turned on Saddam Hussein's army in his 1980-88
war with Iran and returned as a dominant force after
his ousting.
Aside from giving Sunnis more power, the new militia
will have a more formal structure than existing
insurgent forces including al Qaeda, and could be
easier for U.S. and Iraqi officials to talk to.
``Tribal leaders and political figures found that al
Qaeda's program is harming the political efforts and
progress the Sunni political leaders are making,
because al Qaeda rejects all politics,'' said Hazem
Naimi, a political science professor.
While rival forces have built their militias,
successive U.S.-backed governments have struggled to
create effective state security forces.
U.S. officials would ultimately like to see all
militias disbanded. Kurdish President Jalal Talabani
has said the militias could help fight insurgents.
Shi'ite leaders avoid the subject.
The Anbar Revolutionaries are being built up as
diplomats say U.S. officials are shifting favor from
Iraq's pro-Iranian Shi'ite leaders to Sunnis because
of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
That could give Sunnis more clout as the Badr
Brigades, believed to command up to 10,000 fighters,
continue to operate as a semi-official force
speeding through Baghdad on police vehicles in
military uniforms.
Sunni officials say their militia is ``defensive.''
But that may be idealistic as more and more Iraqis
are bombed, shot and beheaded for belonging to one
Islamic sect or the other.
``Sunnis feel that the Shi'ites have taken over the
government and now it is their state,'' said Naimi.
``The Badr Brigades are in the interior ministry and
under the interior ministry's name they go to towns,
kill and arrest.''
Reuters
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