US President George W. Bush has called Iranian-backed "Shiite extremists" as great a peril to his nation as Al-Qaeda, singling out Lebanon's Hizbullah as well as the Shiite militias which his war in Iraq helped to power. Back in Baghdad, Iraqi and US forces launched a major assault Wednesday to wrest control of one of the capital's districts from insurgents.In his annual State of the Union speech late Tuesday, Bush raised the "nightmare scenario" of a premature US pullout sparking an "epic battle between Shiite extremists backed by Iran and Sunni extremists aided by Al-Qaeda and supporters of the old regime." But despite his plea, the Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed Bush's plans to increase troop strength in Iraq as "not in the national interest," an unusual wartime repudiation of the resident. The vote was 12-9, largely along party lines.
An official from a top Shiite party in Iraq bristled at Bush's remarks, but some Sunni politicians welcomed his focus on the danger from Shiite militias, as well as Sunni insurgents. "Comparing Shiite militias to Al-Qaeda is ridiculous," said the Shiite official, who asked not to be identified. "They are protecting their own communities after a three-year onslaught by terrorists and only a few outlaws take revenge. How are the militias a threat to the United States?"
There was no immediate official reaction from Tehran. Iran has reached out to Saudi Arabia in an apparent effort to keep sectarian warfare in Iraq from igniting in Lebanon and beyond.
Bush said Sunni militants such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in Iraq, and Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden were just one part of a "totalitarian" threat from Islamist radicals. "In recent times, it has also become clear that we face an escalating danger from Shiite extremists who are just as hostile to America, and are also determined to dominate the Middle East," he told Congress. "Many are known to take direction from the regime in Iran, which is funding and arming terrorists like Hizbullah - a group second only to Al-Qaeda in the American lives it has taken," Bush said, accusing "Hizbullah terrorists" of "seeking to undermine Lebanon's legitimately elected government."