Article

2006-10-21 Iraq

Al-Maliki sends delegation to Amarah to resolve tension

(KUNA) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki on Friday sent a security delegation headed by Minister of State for National Security Shirwan Al-Waili to Amarah, 367 kilometers south of Baghdad, to resolve security issues there as clashes erupted in the city after the assassination of an Iraqi Police brigadier. Spokesperson for the General Commander of the Armed Forces, Brigadier Qassem Al-Mosawi told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the delegation will meet with tribal chieftains, figures in the city, and members of Al-Sadr group to reduce tension and end violence in the city.

Al-Mosawi added that important negotiations are taking place in the city, which will be completed upon the arrival of the delegation. The official noted that two Iraqi Army brigades comprising of 230 soldiers were dispatched to Amarah with British air support to help create stability in the city.

He said that the gunmen who attacked the police station and targeted civilians cannot be identified unless security and stability is maintained in the city. Sources in Amarah told KUNA that shooting in the city came to stop after Shiite Leader Muqtada Al-Sadr called on members of Al-Mahdi Militia to work for tranquility and uphold promotion of any sectarian conflicts. Violent clashes took place between members of Al-Mahdi Militia and the Iraqi Police after the assassination of Brigadier Qassem Al-Tamimi the director of intelligence and three of his aides in Misan region on Wednesday. Five civilians and four militia members were killed in the clashes, while 40 others were wounded.

Posted by Fred 2006-10-21 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11138 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I rarely agree with the leftist, sewer-rat, Juan Cole, but I think he has correctly assessed the situation in Amarah. If true, he points to a grave miscalculation by Iranian intelligence:

"...Amara is the capital of Maysan province (pop. 770,000). Maysan province in general and Amara in particular support the nationalist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Maysan and its capital are among the places to which the Marsh Arabs were displaced when their swamps dried up, and they are often desperately poor and very tribal, and they seem to have joined the Sadr Movement en masse during the past 3 years.

When the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim controlled the Interior Ministry in 2005 and until May, 2006, it used the ministry's national oversight of local police forces to infiltrate members of SCIRI's paramilitary, the Badr Corps, into the Amara police force. There is a bubbling low-level feud between the Sadrists in Maysan and the SCIRI police.

So recently the Mahdi Army assassinated Qasim al-Tamimi, a police official who was also a member of the Badr Corps. The Badr Corps was formed in Iran and trained by the Revolutionary Guards, and is viewed by many in the Iraqi-nationalist Mahdi Army as the tool of a foreign power.

Then the police arrested or abducted (when militia are in police, how could you tell?) 5 men, including the brother of a Mahdi Army leader in Amara.

Then protests escalated into fighting, and the Mahdi Army took over several police stations and killed or wounded dozens of police/ Badr Corps militiamen.

The Western press is mostly reporting this story backwards, as a pro-Iranian Sadr Movement taking over Amara. In fact, the Sadr Movement already dominated Amara politically, but the (Iranian-trained) Badr Corps had this unnatural niche in the police. It was Badr that had "taken over" the security forces in a largely Sadrist city. The Mahdi Army was attempting to align local politics with local power.

Muqtada al-Sadr, the young spiritual leader of the Sadr Movement and the Mahdi Army, demanded that his men stop fighting and said that he washed his hands of anyone who disobeyed his orders, according to Aljazeera.

Ahmad al-Sharifi, a Sadrist leader, told al-Zaman that the fighting in Amara is one of the consequences of the law on provincial confederacies passed last week by the Iraqi parliament, to which the Sadr Movement was opposed.

Al-Zaman's contacts in the Iraqi intelligence establishment warned that the clashes in Amara could spread to the cities of Basra and Nasiriyah. He said that the Mahdi Army and the Badr Corps in those two cities had announced their mutual dislike of one another, and that they had begun recruiting further militiamen to replenish their ranks..."
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Pro-GWOT pundits need to assess the Arab media much better. Enemies will profit on less than insightful reporting. And we who are not fluent in Arabic, have no choice but to rely on Orientalists.

Posted by Snease Shaiting3550 2006-10-21 04:24|| 2006-10-21 04:24|| Front Page Top

#2 The Badr Corps was formed in Iran and trained by the Revolutionary Guards, and is viewed by many in the Iraqi-nationalist Mahdi Army as the tool of a foreign power.

I've had it completely backwards.

Posted by Shipman 2006-10-21 08:50|| 2006-10-21 08:50|| Front Page Top

#3 I hope this is a double feature. Who's going to make the popcorn?

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2006-10-21 09:10|| 2006-10-21 09:10|| Front Page Top

#4 if Juan Cole is for a certain outcome, you can trust that he's slanting the facts to have an anti-western/anti-American otcome. Saltlick, please

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-10-21 09:41|| 2006-10-21 09:41|| Front Page Top

#5 Cole knows much less than he claims to know, but one area on which he is genuinely knowledgeable is Shia intramural politics in Iraq. This does not mean that you can trust his slant; however he probably has the facts right.

Posted by mhw 2006-10-21 23:18|| 2006-10-21 23:18|| Front Page Top

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