Today (June 27th 2011) The Mahdi Army’s Promised Day Brigade claimed responsibility for ten mortar and Katyusha attacks that targeted US bases.
They stated they would launch further attacks despite the fact that some GZG soldiers had been killed and others wounded. I reproduce below key extracts from their statement:
"The Mahdi Army has new battalions that are ready to fight the Americans until the last moment if it comes to that. Washington always says it wants to leave Iraq, so please leave us."
BAGHDAD // Thousands of Shiite militia loyalists will take to the streets of Baghdad next week in a show of strength aimed at reminding Washington that war will resume if US forces remain beyond the end of the year.
The Mahdi Army, which fought a series of bloody engagements with US troops and Iraqi government forces before calling a ceasefire in 2008, has arranged what it promises will be a massive public demonstration in the heart of the capital.
A new slogan has appeared in the past week on walls in eastern Baghdad and some southern Iraqi towns. Scrawled in paint, it is a simple and, to many Iraqis, chilling promise: "The Mahdi Army is returning."
On the buildings that line the streets and alleyways of neighbourhoods in the Shiite strongholds of north-eastern Baghdad, similarly foreboding messages admonish men against shaving their beards and women against forsaking the abaya for western clothing. Iraq’s security forces quickly whitewash over the warnings, only for them to reappear elsewhere.
They appear to be a calling card of the Mahdi Army which, at the height of its influence in Baghdad after the US-led invasion of 2003, prohibited Iraqis from watching football on television on the ground that sport was against the teachings of Islam. It also operated death squads and fought US troops and Sunni militants with equal ferocity.
The feared Shiite militia was disbanded in 2008, but the prospect of its return has never been far from the minds of Iraqis. That possibility inched closer to reality when the Sadrist movement, which encompasses the Mahdi Army, won a prominent role in the government in last year’s elections.
It is not only graffiti that has heralded a revival of the Madhi Army. Muqtada al Sadr, the cleric who leads the Sadrist movement, has openly threatened to deploy it.
In an address read out to thousands of his loyalists in Baghdad on Saturday, Mr al Sadr said he would revoke the orders freezing Mahdi Army activity and instruct the militia to resume military resistance against US troops if they remain in Iraq after the end of this year.
Under an agreement between Baghdad and Washington, all US military personnel are due to leave by the start of 2012, but US defence chiefs have hinted that they would like a sizeable force to remain beyond that point to prevent a security vacuum.
Hazem al Araji, a Sadrist official, underlined the point, telling Saturday’s cheering crowd they were "all time bombs and the detonators in the hands of Muqtada al Sadr" unless American troops withdraw on schedule.
Abu Ali, a former Mahdi Army commander from southern Baghdad, said he and his men were now on standby.
"That speech was zero-hour for us to begin our preparations," he said. Abu Ali was released from prison about four months ago as part of a political deal with Mr al Sadr that secured a parliamentary majority for the prime minister, Nouri al Maliki, and thus a second term of office.
"We are on alert, and if, by 2012, the American forces don’t leave, we will be at war with them," he said. "For now, we are watching and getting ready so that we are prepared for the end of the year."
If the order were given to resume the war, US forces would not be the only targets. "Disloyal" Iraqis who were assisting American troops would also be singled out, Abu Ali said.
He had no doubt the militia would be back in combat within eight months. "The Americans won’t leave, they want to keep at least 10,000 soldiers here," he said. "We have sources inside the Iraqi government so we know what they are planning."
The Sadrists’ office in Baghdad declined to comment, but a government official allied to the Sadrists’ political wing said militia preparations were under way.
"In the past two weeks we’ve seen them start putting weapons arsenals up in their neighbourhoods and towns, and preparing new strongholds for operations in places like Ameen [in Baghdad] and Kut [a city in southern Iraq]," the official said. "It will not be good, it’s going to cause problems for the community if they clash with the government forces and Americans again."
The official said hardline Mahdi Army leaders, many of whom had been released from jail or returned from exile in Iran, were motivated more by vengeance than by the desire to build a modern and prosperous Iraq.
"Their real goal is to take revenge against the army that defeated them," he said. Iraqi government forces routed the Mahdi Army in 2008 in a series of military clashes in which hundreds of militias fighters were captured, killed or fled to Iran.
"Unless he is careful, Muqtada al Sadr is going to lead the country back into battle and back into more problems," he said.
An Iraqi intelligence officer stationed in Kut, the administrative capital of Wasit province, 180km south of Baghdad, said security forces had information about Mahdi Army commanders trying to reactivate cells in the city and other southern provinces.
"At the moment we have no orders to move against them. We are waiting for national intelligence plans to be drawn up," he said. "There is a possibility of the Mahdi Army being reactivated in Kut. It’s a concern."
The officer said slogans promising the militia’s return had been painted on walls in towns in Wasit province, but that it was unclear who was behind it. "It might be the Sadrists, or it might someone else trying to make the people panic," he said.
Yacoub al Yasari, an independent political analyst who monitors the Mahdi Army, said he had "no doubt" it would return.
"The equation is simple: the Americans will not leave Iraq and they will clash with the Mahdi Army again," he said. "Certainly there will be new battles next year."
When the fighting resumes in earnest, he added, there will be plenty of fresh recruits.
"There is no shortage of people who will fight for them because a lot of young, poor Iraqis are very angry and disillusioned with the government and the Americans after all the years of failure."
Political analysts agreed that the Iraqi government has to deal cautiously with the statement issued by Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr who threatened to end the freeze on his armed wing Mahdi Army if U.S. forces did not pull out of Iraq as scheduled.
A spokesman for Sadr, Salah al-Obaidi, in a statement by the Sadrist Movement leader he read out in a massive rally of Sadr supporters who gathered to demand the exit of U.S. forces from Iraq on Saturday, had said that if the U.S. troops did not depart Iraq, the Mahdi Army will return to escalate military as well as peaceful resistance.
Analyst Rebin Rassoul termed Sadr’s move as a "political outbidding" in a bid to bring Nouri al-Maliki and his government in hot water "It’s high time the status of forces agreement is implemented. The U.S. forces will go out of Iraq in accordance with the agreement, not upon a request from the Iraqi side, but rather because the U.S. administration wants that," Rassoul told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
U.S. combat troops have withdrawn from Iraq by the end of August 2009 in light of the SOFA deal signed between Baghdad and Washington in late 2008, provided that the remaining force, 50,000 troops, would pull out of Iraq at the end of this year. "This political outbidding is tickling the popular sentiments on the street, now that the 100-day deadline is beginning to expire. Perhaps Sadr, a patriotic who leads a patriotic movement that has been resisting the occupation since the beginning, is trying to win the Iraq’s street’s confidence on the long run," Rassoul added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had set on February 28, 2011, a deadline of 100 days for ministries and service departments to offer better services for Iraqi citizens, to be followed by a comprehensive assessment of the ministries’ work. Maliki’s move followed mass demonstrations in most Iraqi cities protesting deteriorating services, corruption in government departments and unemployment.
Sadr had announced in 2007 freezing all activities of the military wing of his movement, Jaysh al-Mahdi, or the Mahdi Army, for a period of six months. He later announced in February 2008 that the freeze would be extended for six months more.
Another political analyst, Ibrahim al-Samaydaie, said the Sadrist Movement and Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr were expected to return to the political arena away from any military wings. "The threat to use violence and return to resistance are very serious. Accordingly, I call on the Sadrist Movement to reverse its position for I expect an extension of the SOFA deal between the Iraq and the U.S. side," Samaydaie said.
He pointed out that Iraq needs another agreement providing clearly for its protection as long as Iraq’s military preparedness is incomplete.
Govt. has to handle Sadr statement with kid gloves – analysts : Aswat Al Iraq
Quotes of the day:
Who’s Hazem al-Araji? Hazem al-Araji, is the Imam of the largest Shia mosque in Baghdad. He and his brother Baha al-Araji (who leads the Sadrist bloc in parliament) are both very senior Sadrist leaders. You can take it that his "ticking time bombs" remark was cleared in advance. What else can can you take for granted?
You can take for granted that when Muqtada al-Sadr says flat out that he’ll order the resumption of military operations by the Jaish al-Mahdi if the hated American invaders don’t depart on time that he means it.
You can take it that when Hazem al-Araji says that they’re all "ticking time bombs" that he knows what he’s talking about and that he means it.
You can also take it that their audience approves, I was invited to witness the demonstration in al- Mustansiriyah Square, when the part of al-Sadr’s statement in which he discussed escalating military operations was read out there was a full throated roar of approval from the crowd the same was true when al-Araji made his ticking time bombs comment.
Finally you should not take for granted that the Jaish al-Mahdi have been inactive. They haven’t, they’ve been training. Some of them have been to training courses run by Hizbollah who, I’m reliably told, were more than pleased with their pupils’ progress.
markfromireland
بغداد: نفى القيادي في التيار الصدري نصار الريبعي عودة نشاط جيش المهدي، وقال إن التيار يسعى لأن تقدم الكتل السياسية أكثر من مرشح لرئاسة الحكومة الجديدة ليتم اختيار الافضل من خلال المفاوضات فيما بينها، مشيرًا الى تقدم في مباحثات التحالف بين الائتلافين الوطني ودولة القانون
رافضًا فرض اي قرار سياسي خارجي على العراق، مشدّدًا على ضرورة أن يكون هذا القرار عراقيًّا. وقال نصار الربيعي وهو رئيس كتلة الاحرار التي تمثل التيار الصدري ضمن الائتلاف الوطني إن استمرار الشكوك في نتائج الانتخابات التشريعية الاخيرة سيدخل البلاد في نفق مظلم لا تعرف من خلاله الى اين تسير… وفيما يلي الحوار..
*كيف تنظرون إلى اصرار الصدر على عدم ترشيح رئيس للحكومة الجديدة من حزب الدعوة مقابل اصرار زعيم هذا الحزب نوري المالكي على نيل هذا المنصب؟
- الموضوع ليس ترشيح المالكي أو عدم ترشيحه أو رفض مرشح من حزب الدعوة، ولكن في واقع الامر نريد أكثر من مرشح لرئاسة الوزراء، ولأن الموضوع فني وليس سياسيًا، فأسباب الرفض فنية،فنحن نريد ترشيح أكثر من شخصية لرئاسة الوزراء لأنه منصب لكل العراقيين ولكل الاحزاب والكتل. فبالتالي إذا حصل رفض من كتل اخرى عند التفاوض على هذه الشخصية فسيكون هناك بديل متوفر.. أما اذا كان هناك مرشح واحد وتحدث المشكلة نفسها التي واجهت الجعفري (رئيس الوزراء السابق الذي اضطر للتنازل عن الترشح للمنصب من جديد لاعتراض قوى سياسية عليه) مع اننا كنا في ائتلاف واحد ولدينا آليات للاستبدال أما الان وعندما يكون التوافق بين ائتلافين او اكثر فان الصعوبة في هذا الامر تكون اكبر من ناحية ألاستبدال لذلك نريد أكثر من خيار ونحن لانرفض المالكي او حزب الدعوة.
*هل لدى التيار الصدري تحفظات على تولي علاوي رئاسة الحكومة الجديدة .. وان تولاها ما هو موقفكم من ذلك ؟
- نحن نتعامل مع جميع الكتل على قدم المساواة و نتفاوض مع الجميع ومن نتاج التفاوضات مع جميع الكتل سيكون هناك اتفاق ورضى عام على شخصية مقبولة من الجميع وعندها سنكون جزءًا من هذه العملية.
*ما موقف التيار الصدري من تدخلات بعض دول الجوار، وتحديدًا ايران بالشأن الداخلي العراقي والذي بات يشكل خطرًا على حد وصف الادارة الاميركية؟
- نحن نرفض اي تدخل اجنبي في شؤون العراق الداخلية ونطمح لأن يكون القرار السياسي العراقي منطلقًا من الداخل،وأن يكون قرارًا عراقيًا خالصًا دون تدخل أي اقليمي أو عربي ونرغب في بناء علاقات قوية جدًّا مع دول الجوار الحريصة على الاستقرار في العراق.. وهناك الكثير من المصالح التي تربطنا بكل الدول المجاورة وخاصة من الناحية الاقتصادية ولكن التدخل في القرار السياسي العراقي مرفوض من جميع الدول سواء كانت ايران أو تركيا او اي دول عربية وغيرها.
* الى أين وصلت التحالفات بين الائتلاف الوطني العراقي الذي تنتمون اليه وإئتلاف دولة القانون ؟
-المفاوضات ما زالت مستمرة مع جميع الكتل بما فيها دولة القانون وقطعنا اشواطاكبيرة بين الائتلافين.*هل تتوقعون ان تشهد الايام المقبلة انفراجًا نحو عقد تحالف بين الائتلافين؟
- ان شاء الله الايام المقبلة ستشهد انفراجًا لصالح جميع الاطراف وهناك الكثير من المستجدات سوف تظهر الى العلن ومن دون تهميش لأي كتلة، لأننا نريد مشاركة جميع الاطراف ونعتقد ان العراق بحاجة الى مرحلة انتقالية جديدة حتى تستقر الاوضاع لأن نتائج الانتخابات افرزت هذا الواقع الجديد والسبب هذه النتائج المتقاربة للكتل.
*هل تعتقدون ان عملية اعادة عد الاصوات وفرزها ستسهم في متغيّرات على الخارطة الانتخابية ؟- ان العد والفرز من الناحية القانونية صحيح بإعتبار ان هناك شكوى قدمت من ائتلاف دولة القانون وهذه الشكوى تم تقديمها وفق أدلة أقتنعت بها المحكمة ولكن من الناحية السياسية اعتقد ان الموضوع خطر لأن البوصلة الوحيدة الموجودة والتي تقود العملية السياسية هي نتائج الانتخابات..واذا تم فقدان هذه البوصلة فستفقد العملية السياسية بوصلتها وأتجاهها ولن نعرف الى أين نحن سائرون لأنه إذا صارت هناك شكوك بنتائج الانتخابات وارتقت الى مشكلة عامة بحيث يتم الغاء الانتخابات او تغيير نتائجها، سندخل بالنتيجة في نفق مظلم.
Source: Sami Moubayed on Muqtada al-Sadr and the new improved Mahdi Army
Iraq’s IHEC to start votes recount on Monday: Xinhua
Editor’s Note: al-Haidari, also said that there will be a decision on a Kurdish call for a recount in the northern town of Hawija on Monday.
BAGHDAD, April 29 (Xinhua) — Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said Thursday it will start manual recount of all ballots for Baghdad province on Monday and would continue for around two to three weeks.
"The electoral commission decided to start the recount for the ballots of Baghdad province next Monday," Faraj al-Haidari, head of the IHEC told press conference here.
Haidari also said that his commission would call on representatives of political bloc which ran in March 7 elections, along with media and international monitors to attend the recount process.Hamdiyal al-Hussieni, a female commission member told reporters in the press conference that her commission estimated the recount process to take two to three weeks.
She said that the recount would take place in the al-Rasheed Hotel in the Green Zone that houses some Iraqi government offices and foreign embassies, including the U.S. one.
Iraqi human-rights worker killed by roadside bomb – Monsters and Critics:
Baghdad – An Iraqi human-rights worker was killed by a roadside bomb in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk Thursday, police told the German Press Agency dpa.
Police Colonel Salah al-Din Taha said the man was critically injured by a roadside bomb as he drove down al-Quds street in Kirkuk.
Emergency responders rushed the injured man to hospital, where he died of his wounds, Taha said.
See also: Shirwan Ubaid Murdered In Kirkuk | Gorilla’s Guides
Baghdad vote recount to take 2 to 3 weeks – Conflict in Iraq- msnbc.com:
Iraq’s election officials said Thursday that a recount of the Baghdad ballots could take up to three weeks as a car bomb killed eight people in the capital, highlighting again the tenuous security situation while the chaos arising from the March 7 parliamentary vote drags on.
The timeline — possibly even longer than it took to count the whole country’s ballots after the March 7 election— means another delay for an election process that has already dragged on for weeks and threatens to undermine the country’s fragile stability.
New twist in Iraq election crisis: Maliki’s enemies latch onto torture allegations – CSMonitor.com:
Key political bloc pummels Maliki over torture
The Sadr movement, the most powerful member of a Shiite political bloc that had contemplated joining forces with Maliki’s State of Law coalition, lashed out over the torture allegations.
"What has the government brought us in the past four years except prisons and new graves?" Sadr official Hazem Al-Araji told Al-Sharqiya television network.
Iraq: Allawi’s List Threatens Civil Disobedience Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English):
Salih al-Mutlak, the leading figure in Al-Iraqiya List that is led by the former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, has threatened the withdrawal of their coalition, which won 91 seats in the next Iraqi parliament in the recent legislative elections, from "the entire peace process and to take to the streets to side with the Iraqis and lead massive demonstrations and sit-ins and to call for a general civil disobedience if the arbitrary measures against the List, its members, and its supporters were not stopped."
Clinton urged to protect ‘fragile’ Christian minority in Iraq:
Church leaders from various denominations have urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to work with Iraqi authorities in protecting the persecuted Christian minority.
The National Council of Churches and its partners throughout the world on Monday sent a letter to Clinton and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates expressing concern about "the ongoing situation of violent attacks on minority groups in Iraq."
Civilian killed, 8 injured in Iraq’s violence: Xinhua
A civilian was killed and eight people wounded in separate bomb attacks in Baghdad and Iraq’s eastern province of Diyala on Thursday, police said.
A roadside bomb went off in the morning near a police foot patrol in southeastern neighborhood of Mashtal in Baghdad, wounding four policemen and two civilians,
In Diyala province, a civilian was killed and two injured in a roadside bomb explosion near their vehicle close to the town of Wajihiyah, near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, an anonymous provincial police source told Xinhua.
In a separate incident, Iraqi security forces captured five al- Qaida militants while they were planting three roadside bombs at the residential area of al-Gatoon in western Baquba, the source added.
During the day, Iraqi security forces arrested 12 more suspects in separate search operations across the province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east of the country, the source added.
Source: Xinhua
Car bomb near Baghdad liquor store kills 8 – Monsters and Critics:
Eight people were killed Thursday evening when a car bomb exploded near a liquor store in Baghad, Iraqi news agencies reported.
Another 20 persons were injured by the blast, which completely destroyed two stores located right next to each other.
The attack came in the Al-Shurta Al-Rabia district in the south- western part of the city.
كونا : Car bomb in Baghdad kills 6, injures 18 – الدفاع والأمن – 29/04/2010:
Six people were killed in a car bomb explosion in western Baghdad on Thursday, an Iraqi policy source said.
Qaeda ‘postman’ dispatched Iraq chiefs to deaths:
BAGHDAD – An Al Qaeda messenger unwittingly dispatched two top Islamist commanders to their deaths this month, when a US-backed force tracked him to their den and killed them, investigators told AFP on Thursday.
Abu Omar Al Baghdadi and Abu Ayub Al Masri, who had direct links with Osama bin Laden, were killed in a shootout when a joint Iraqi-US force raided their safehouse north of Baghdad on April 18.
Baghdadi was the political leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) while Masri, an Egyptian militant, was the insurgent group’s self-styled ‘minister of war.’
The pair, according to investigators, did not use cell phones or the Internet but relied on their own postman who relayed messages between them and other insurgents.
Once a week the man, whose identity was not revealed, sat in a Baghdad cafe where he discreetly made contact with insurgents, delivering messages from Baghdadi and receiving others for the top Al Qaeda operative.Iraqi officials learned of the messenger’s existence on March 11 when security forces captured Munaf Abdul Rahim Al Rawi, the Al Qaeda chief in the Iraqi capital who was known as the ‘governor of Baghdad.’
Al-Shabaab responds to AQI killings – UPI.com:
MOGADISHU, Somalia, April 29 (UPI) — Somali al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabaab said it carried out a suicide attack on peacekeepers in Mogadishu in retaliation for the deaths of Iraqi al-Qaida leaders.
Al-Shabaab said it targeted the base for peacekeepers with the African Union in Mogadishu in response to the killing of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq. The two were killed last week in Tikrit during a joint raid by Iraqi and U.S. forces.
Iraqi doctors use acupuncture during drug shortage | Reuters:
Iraqi doctors faced with a shortage of anaesthetic drugs in a capital city hit by years of conflict have successfully used acupuncture to treat mothers during caesarean section births.
Reporting on Thursday on a small study of 200 cases at a Baghdad hospital, the doctors said their results suggested the ancient Chinese technique could also be a useful addition to standard medical practice in fully equipped hospitals.
The doctors used acupuncture, where fine needles are inserted into certain points on the body, to see if they could replace or reduce the need for a drug called oxytocin which is often given to mothers just after a c-section delivery to help the womb contract and to cut the risk of bleeding. Oxytocin is a hormone that also occurs naturally in the body during labour.
The study covered emergency caesarean section at the Red Crescent Hospital for Gynecology and Obstetrics in Baghdad between 2004 and 2006, when oxytocin stocks were low.
FT.com / Iraq – Iraq in talks to buy BAE Hawk jets:
The Iraqi government is in talks to buy Hawk trainer jets from the UK in a deal that could be worth up to £1bn and would be a boost for BAE Systems, the defence contractor that manufactures the aircraft.
It would be Iraq’s biggest arms purchase from Britain for more than two decades. It is understood that officials from the Iraqi Air Force will be visiting the UK next month to test the Hawk, which is used to train fast-jet pilots.
Kuwait: UN pays $590 mln in damages for 1990 invasion – Adnkronos Security:
A United Nations commission has paid 590 million dollars to nine successful claimants in connection with Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The latest round of payments brings the total amount of compensation disbursed by the UN Compensation Commission to individuals, corporations, governments and international organisations to nearly 29.5 billion dollars, the UN said on Thursday.
Iraq’s air dream to London turns into a nightmare:
The first commercial flight between Baghdad and London in 20 years has turned into a nightmare for Iraq after its national airline boss had his passport seized and a chartered plane was impounded.
The transport ministry in Baghdad on Thursday confirmed that Iraqi Airways chief Kifah Hassan’s travel document was taken after papers were served by lawyers acting for Kuwait Airways, which says it is owed 1.2 billion dollars.
The dispute dates back to now executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, when, according to the oil-rich emirate, 10 of its planes were plundered after its airport had been seized.
Muqtada unleashes new, improved army : By Sami Moubayed : Asia Times Online:
All the ingredients that led to the creation of Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1982 exist in Iraq today. There are Shi’ites, plenty of arms available for everyone, political and security chaos, a weak central government and occupation to justify the carrying of arms.
Muqtada has been working hard for two years to transform the Mahdi Army into another Hezbollah, personally inspired by Hassan Nasrallah. That is why he froze all activities of the Mahdi Army, so he can take a long hard look at membership and filter out the undisciplined, the reckless and the corrupt (of which there were plenty in 2003-2007).
That is why he went back to the seminary, so he could elevate his academic credentials and rise from the rank of sayyed to that of an ayatollah (which enables him to issue fatwas) and grants him greater authority within the Shi’ite community at large. And that explains why, against all odds, he has insisted on refraining from any sectarian rhetoric, copying the Nasrallah model in Lebanon, who always speaks of Lebanon, not of Shi’ites.
Muqtada also copied Hezbollah’s massive charity network, monopolizing education, hospitals and fund-raising within the Shi’ite districts of Iraq to make sure that no family goes to bed hungry and all receive a monthly stipend from the Mahdi Army. Much like a modern Robin Hood, Muqtada is suiting himself to become spokesmen, defender and leader for the poor of Iraq.
Now is the time to unveil the new Mahdi Army. It will look, sound and act like Hezbollah. No more street violence or sectarian tension triggered by the Sadrists. On the contrary, the Mahdi Army – this time with strong Iranian support – will replace the failed state of Maliki. It will extend an arm to the Sunnis and Kurds willing to work with it, making sure that no prime minister is brought to power, without full consent of Muqtada.
The aftermath of what is now being called "Bloody Friday" in which in Baghdad alone there were 13 bombings continued to dominate the English language coverage of developments in Irak.
There was a lot of coverage of Muqtada al-Sadr’s statement in which he offered the services of the Jaish al-Mahdi to help protect mosques. The translations (see below) while accurate missed the sarcastic tone of the offer.
Khaled
In Sadr City, residents resisted the temptation to point the finger at the Sunni community.
Many said they blamed foreign fighters or the political wrangling that preceded and followed last month’s inconclusive parliamentary election.
Read in full: BBC News – Baghdad bombings heighten religious tensions::
"I am ready to supply hundreds of believers to form brigades within the police forces and army to defend the shrines, the mosques, the faithful, the markets, the houses and the people. This would prevent us having to rely on the occupation forces for protection and enable the Iraqis to live peacefully. The government is free to refuse (our offer) but we are always ready to help,"
Iraq’s Sadr clarifies stance on militia’s use – latimes.com:
After a follower of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr vowed to dispatch militia members to defend Iraqi mosques in the wake of a series of deadly bombings, a statement from Sadr that was widely distributed Saturday made it clear that the Mahdi Army would be reactivated only if the government accepted the offer.
[snip]
The comments Friday by cleric Hazem Arraji and a statement attributed to another senior Sadr aide had raised fears that they signaled a return to those terrible days.
See also:
KUNA : Islamic Dawa party calls for activating political dialogues between winning
Islamic Dawa Party, led by outgoing Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday called to activate the political dialogues between the winning blocks in response to the recent terrorist attacks in Baghdad.
Antiwar.com’s Margaret Griffis lists incidents in which 8 people were killed and 21 wounded.
KUNA : Baghdad Explosions kill 3, wound 19 – Military and Security – 24/04/2010:
Death toll of explosions in Baghdad’s Amil neighbourhood rose to three with 19 injured, Iraqi police sources said.
They sources told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the three explosions happened in a local market in Al-Mekasis area killing three and injuring 19 other Iraqis, mostly youngsters playing billiar or were present at the local popular cafe.
KUNA: Three Iraqi civilians killed, policeman injured in Mosul:
Unknown gunmen opened fire at a policeman who was accompanied by a civilian in Mosul. The shooting killed the civilian and injured the servieman,
Two civilians were shot dead by unknown gunmen in Al-Tanak area in Mosul.
Pakistan embassy in Iraq set to reopen | Peninsula On-line:
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government has made several ambassadorial appointments, including one for Iraq, indicating that the Pakistan embassy in Baghdad is going to be reopened.
Shah Jamal, currently posted in Glasgow as consul-general, has been designated as
ambassador to Iraq.
Test of resilience in Baghdad: Khaleej Times Online
There is something seriously wrong with the security edifice in Iraq. Back to back bomb blasts have become a routine affair, especially in areas that are thickly Shia populated. It hints at a sinister plot to fuel sectarian conflict in a country, which is highly marginalised when it comes to religion and ethnicity.
دعا زعيم التيار الصدري السيد مقتدى الصدر أبناء الشعب العراقي إلى "ضبط النفس وعدم الانجرار خلف المخططات التي تهدف إلى جر العراق إلى حروب واقتتال ".
وابدى الصدر في بيان صدر عن مكتبه في النجف استعداده لـ"توفير المئات من المؤمنين لكي يكونوا سرايا رسمية في الجيش العراقي أو الشرطة لكي يدافعوا عن مراقدهم ومساجدهم وصلواتهم وأسواقهم وبيوتهم ومدنهم لعدم التجاء الحكومة الى القوات الامريكية".
ووجه زعيم التيار نصيحة للسياسيين بان "لا تلهيهم تحالفاتهم عن شعبهم المظلوم"، داعيا إلى "حكومة موحدة لا طائفية ولا عرقية ولا حزبية بل عراقية تجمع كل اطياف الشعب العراقي ومكوناته بعيدا عن الاحتلال والبعث والإرهاب والمليشيات"، بحسب البيان.
Controversial cleric’s bid for ayatollah status could also help cement comeback after election boost.
The movement led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is poised to make a dramatic return to the forefront of Iraqi Shia politics, combining its success in recent elections with the anticipated elevation of its leader’s religious status.
Sadr’s followers are projected to have won more than 40 seats in the new parliament, increasing their share by at least ten.
They are now the strongest faction in the Iraqi National Alliance, the main bloc that challenged prime minister Nuri al-Maliki for the Shia vote. Maliki has been regarded with suspicion by the Sadrists since the Iraqi military led a crackdown on their militia in 2008.
Alongside growing leverage over their political rivals, the Sadrists are expected to enjoy greater spiritual authority among their supporters as Muqtada continues his studies to become an eminent Shia scholar, or ayatollah.
Officials close to the 36-year-old cleric say he is making swift progress in his schooling at a seminary in the Iranian holy city of Qom. It is unclear whether he will graduate soon, as most ayatollahs spend several decades attaining the rank.
It is also as yet unclear whether the Sadrists will enter government or form an opposition, as final election results have yet to be released and protracted coalition talks are expected to follow. Whatever they decide, analysts say the Sadrists will be impossible to ignore in the new parliament.
“They will have their word in every decision,” Abdullah Jaafar, a retired professor of political sciences in Baghdad, said.
As the most blatantly anti-American of the Shia political groups, Sadr’s movement is particularly well placed to capitalise on the planned withdrawal of most United States military forces from Iraq later this year.
“If the Americans withdraw at the expected time, the Sadrists will tell their followers that they kicked the troops out,” Jaafar said. He added that the Sadrists would oppose any attempt to extend the Americans’ stay in Iraq.
A member of a prominent Shia religious family that was persecuted by Saddam Hussein, Sadr emerged as a popular leader in the aftermath of the US-led invasion in 2003. His relative youth and fiery opposition to the American presence won him many followers among the urban Shia poor.
His armed supporters were gathered into a militia, known as the Mahdi Army, that fought several battles with US-led troops. The militia was also implicated in attacks on Sunnis and rival Shia groups during the worst years of sectarian conflict in the middle of the last decade.
In 2008, the Mahdi Army was severely weakened after government troops attacked its strongholds in Baghdad and southern Iraq. The assault roughly coincided with Sadr’s decision to move to Iran to pursue his studies.
From Qom, Sadr has maintained contact with his followers through hand-written notes and sermons, channeled through his organisation’s offices across Iraq. His movement has shed some of its martial image and sought to emphasise its social, religious and political programmes.
In interviews with IWPR, Sadr’s allies linked his eventual return to Iraq to the completion of his studies and the withdrawal of American troops.
“Muqtada al-Sadr will not return to an occupied Iraq,” Nasser al-Rubaie, a Sadrist candidate and a deputy in the outgoing parliament, said. “He has said more than once that he will only return when the American occupiers have left.”
Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for Sadr, denied claims that the cleric had moved to Iran to avoid arrest under a warrant issued against him by the US military. “He is not afraid of coming home but he is busy with his studies in Iran right now,” he said.
Sadr’s followers believe their leader’s theological studies will enhance their standing in parliament and on the street.
“There is no doubt that gaining the rank of ayatollah will empower the Sadrist bloc,” Rubaie said.
“It will also broaden the Sadrists’ base by giving those who love Sadr the chance to follow him as a marja,” he added. A marja is the title given to a Shia scholar, almost always of ayatollah rank, who is entrusted by his followers to provide guidance on all aspects of daily life.
Currently, most Shia Iraqis, including Sadr’s followers, regard Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as their marja. An elderly cleric based in the holy city of Najaf, Sistani called on Iraqis to turn out and vote but did not endorse any political faction in the latest election.
Prominent Shia politicians who are not part of the Sadrist group acknowledge that Sadr’s theological studies will enhance his political standing. However, they question the extent to which his movement will be able to eclipse its rivals.
Sadr’s studies “will make him wiser and enable him to take more accurate decisions in politics”, said Muna Zalzala, a deputy with the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, ISCI, a major Shia Islamist party that partnered the Sadrists in the recent election.
While the Sadrists as a bloc would grow more powerful, Zalzala said she did not believe they would necessarily gain more followers once Sadr became a marja. “Sistani is the highest marja in Iraq,” she said.
Abdul Hadi al-Hasani, a deputy from Dawa, Maliki’s Shia party, said Sadr was still many years away from qualifying as an ayatollah.
“It is not easy for anyone to get such a rank in a few years,” he said. “Clerics study for decades to get this rank. A marja is a big responsibility and it is still too early for Sadr.”
Officials close to Sadr said, however, that he was expected to qualify quicker than other clerics.
“His family is known to be geniuses,” Rubaie said, pointing out that Sadr’s father and his father’s cousin both qualified as ayatollahs while still relatively young.
A source close to the cleric who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to release such information said Sadr was expected to be appointed ayatollah within three to seven years.
Some Sunni Arabs said they feared Sadr’s growing theological authority would ultimately strengthen the Mahdi Army, which they associate with a campaign of violence that killed thousands of their community.
“We respect Sadr but we fear his militia,” Sabah Adil, a government employee from Baghdad, said. “They killed Sunnis everywhere. We pretended to be Shia at the time.”
Nebras Sami, an arts student from Baghdad in his late twenties, said he would consider leaving Iraq if Sadr became an ayatollah. “If he got the degree, no one will dare prevent him from rebuilding his militia,” he said.
Mithal al-Alosi, a secular member of parliament from a Sunni Arab family, said he was not against Sadr’s pursuit of theological study but was worried about its possible impact.
“We are not concerned about Muqtada al-Sadr or his rank but about the extent to which [this] will be politicised locally and regionally,” he said.
Alosi added that he feared for Sadr’s safety in Iran, and believed he might be vulnerable to manipulation by the Tehran government.
“Having Sadr staying in Iran is not good for him or his followers. For example, if a suspicious edict is issued in his name while he is in Iran, we cannot confirm whether or not it was issued by him,” Alosi said.
Sadr’s supporters maintain that his studies will strengthen their movement, and dismiss fears of a revival of sectarian violence.
“The Sunni and Shia are sons of one Iraq, we are brothers,” Amir al-Kenani, a Sadrist candidate, said. “Terrorists tried to stoke strife among us. They failed in the past and we will not allow them to succeed in the future.”
Source: Sadr Followers Bask in Poll Success by By Abeer Mohammed in Baghdad (ICR No. 329, 25-Mar-10) Abeer Mohammed is IWPR’s senior local editor in Baghdad.
