|
Kurds and Shia Fight for Power in Baghdad
30.5.2007
|
|
|
|
May 30, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq, -- A massacre by members of
Shia Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi army on Sunni
worshippers earlier this month sparked clashes
between patrolling Kurdish militiamen in southwest
Baghdad and the Mehdi army, raising tensions that
fighting between the groups could spread.
Sadr, who emerged from hiding Friday, delivered a
fiery anti-occupation sermon at a mosque in the city
of Kufa, south of Baghdad and near Najaf. On the
same day, Iraqi police told reporters that the
leader of the Mehdi army in the southern city of
Basra, Abu Qadir, was killed in a gun battle with
British soldiers.
This recent development could have far reaching
implications, even into the volatile city of Kirkuk
in the Kurdish controlled north, where tensions run
high between Arab Shia and Kurds. Kurdish groups are
intent on controlling the city and forcing other
groups out, so as to control the oil-rich
surrounding area to facilitate the creation of an
independent Kurdish state.
Dressed in official police uniforms, and in order to
gain access through a checkpoint to detain Sunni
worshippers at a mosque in the area, Mehdi army
members told Kurdish members of the Iraqi army who
were participating in the crackdown in the southwest
areas of Baghdad that they were following orders
from the Ministry of Interior.
A member of the local council in the area of Baghdad
where the incident took place spoke with IPS at his
office on condition of strict anonymity: "The
dispute started when the Mehdi army members raided
the Bayaa and Amil area to arrest 14 worshippers at
a Sunni mosque while broadcasting a message through
loudspeakers that they were conducting the raid by
orders from Brigadier General Nizar, the Kurdish
platoon leader."
The Kurdish unit was placed in the Amil and Bayaa
areas of southwest Baghdad in March as part of the
security crackdown there led by the U.S. military.
"The detainees were found executed later, so we
understood that the force was in fact a death squad
working for the Ministry of Interior," he added.
"Brigadier Nizar later revealed that fact to the
media, saying the attacking force had an official
warrant from the Ministry of Interior and that was
why he allowed them to go through his checkpoints."
Local policemen believe that the Shia militia,
operating out of the Ministry of Interior as they
have been for over two years now, also attempted to
provoke a fight between the Kurdish unit in Baghdad
and the local community in the area they were
deployed, which is heavily Sunni.
Two weeks ago Mehdi army members attacked the
Kurdish unit. It is unknown if anyone was killed or
wounded from either side, since orders from both the
leaders of the Kurds and the Mehdi army ceased media
coverage of the event.
Sources from inside the Kurdish unit involved in the
incident, who spoke with IPS on condition of
anonymity since they were instructed not to speak
with the media, explained that Kurdish soldiers and
officers remain angry about the attack on their
unit, but they had received strict orders from their
command in northern Iraq not to fight back against
the Mehdi army at the moment, but "to deal firmly
with any further attacks in the future."
As a result, tensions are high and the urge to blame
someone for the instability in the area has
increased.
An eyewitness to the 14 Sunni men being detained by
the Mehdi army spoke with IPS, requesting his name
withheld. He believes the U.S. military has taken
sides between the militias and are pitting them
against one another.
"This area was peaceful and the mixture of Shia and
Sunni had no dispute whatsoever," he said. "It's the
militias who started all the killing in order to
divide people and rule them."
The situation at southwest Baghdad is so tense that
daily gun battles are heard and people cannot leave
their houses for work or shopping for food. As of
Sunday, U.S. forces in the area are applying a
curfew in order to control the situation.
During his speech on Friday, al-Sadr announced, "I
say to our Sunni brothers in Iraq that we are
brothers and the occupier shall not divide us. They
are welcome and we are ready to cooperate with them
in all fields. This is my hand I stretch out to
them."
This followed a move a few days prior where Shia
leaders from Sadr City in eastern Baghdad met with
Sunni tribal heads from western Iraq. Both sides
promised to work together for national
reconciliation and against extremism.
However, most Sunnis do not believe reconciliation
is part of al-Sadr's agenda
"The Americans will arrest the Sunni young men only
and clear the way for the Mehdi army to work their
electric drills on people's bodies," 35-year-old
Khalid Aziz told IPS. Aziz claimed he is a member of
the Iraqi resistance.
"It is all planned by the Americans who now want the
Kurds to be involved in the sectarian fighting they
engineered," he added.
Many analysts in Baghdad believe the U.S. military
is attempting to involve the Kurds in the escalating
conflict by sending armed groups and death squads of
other sects or ethnicities to engage the Kurdish
forces in Baghdad in order to drag them into the
conflict.
However, the Kurds are reportedly attempting to not
take sides and to remain neutral in the sectarian
conflict, although most of them are Sunnis.
IPS sources in Baghdad believe that bringing the
Kurds into Baghdad in itself is the beginning of
their participation in the sectarian violence,
especially when they are attacked by Shiite militias
on occasion.
Others believe that the divide and conquer strategy
by the U.S. military and U.S.-backed Iraqi
politicians is being implemented across much of
Baghdad.
"The western half of Baghdad that holds the name of
al-Karkh is inhabited by a majority of Sunni Arabs,"
Mohammad Shakir, a historian from the Dora region of
Baghdad, told IPS. "But there are also a variety of
Kurds and Shiite Arabs there, as is the case in most
parts of Iraq where sects lived together in relative
peace for centuries. This sectarian fighting was
ignited by Iraqi politicians who came with the U.S.
occupation to dominate power in Iraq."
Kassim Awadi, an Iraqi political analyst in Baghdad,
told IPS: "Although not likely to take place in the
near future, the conflict between Kurds and the Shia
fighters who are conducting an Iranian agenda could
spread."
"It seems to me that no sect will keep away from the
civil war and it is not in the interest of either
the U.S. occupation or Iran that any part of Iraq
would stay stable," Awadi explained in an interview
at his office. "The story of the fighting between
Kurdish units and [Mehdi army] police units is not a
strange one as the agendas for each party are
completely different and the conflicts are
definitely going to take place sooner or later if
[Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki's government is to
stay in power."
Former Iraqi Army General Ahmed Khidir told IPS that
he believes the violence in Baghdad is now permanent
because occupation forces lost control long ago and
are now completely reliant on various militias.
"The U.S. army and the U.S. media are full of lies
concerning being impartial, and the truth is that
the Americans are working together with many armed
groups who conduct massive killings," Khidir said.
"One can clearly see the mass destruction policy
towards Sunni areas while military operations
against Shiite death squads are [restrained] and
largely impotent."
IPS
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 