Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

US military escalates confrontation with Shiite militia in Iraq

Peter Symonds via sam | 31.08.2006 06:14 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Repression | World

It is these considerations that are propelling the US military into reckless and bloody operations against the Mahdi Army, regardless of the consequences.

Reckless and bloody operations
Reckless and bloody operations


Two days of fierce fighting in the Iraqi city of Diwaniyah is one more sign that the US military is preparing for a bloody showdown with the militia forces of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The target of any new offensive will be not just Sadr’s Mahdi Army, but the Shiite urban poor who are overwhelmingly hostile to the US occupation and who demonstrated in their tens of thousands on August 4 against the US-Israeli war on Lebanon.

The clashes in Diwaniyah, 180 kilometres south of Baghdad, erupted on Sunday after government troops arrested a member of the Sadrist movement for allegedly planning a bomb attack. According to the army, 23 soldiers and 30 militiamen, as well as a number of civilians, died in the fighting. Major General Othman al-Ghanimi accused the militants of publicly executing a number of soldiers, a claim that the Sadrists denied.

Nasir al-Saadi, a spokesman for Sadr’s parliamentary bloc, told the New York Times that the army had attacked Mahdi-dominated neighbourhoods late on Sunday night, damaging homes and killing civilians. Iraqi soldiers were backed by Polish troops and US warplanes, which bombed at least one alleged militia position. According to the army, the Mahdi fighters were joined by other militia groups in continuous fighting that lasted into Monday afternoon.

The US-led military command in Baghdad issued a statement declaring that the Iraqi army and police had successfully “fended off” an attack by a large number of “terrorists” in three districts of Diwaniyah. In comments to Associated Press, however, army captain Fatik Aied said the gun battles had broken out when Iraqi soldiers launched raids in the city’s southern suburbs to flush out militants and seize weapons. Asked about the clashes with Iraqi soldiers, one Mahdi militiaman involved in the fighting told the New York Times: “We know they are our brothers, but the Americans are pushing them against us.”

While the US military claimed a victory in Diwaniyah, the fighting was inconclusive, even after the army brought in reinforcements, and only ended after a truce was negotiated. Sadr, who was personally involved in the negotiations with provincial officials, tried to distance himself from the clashes. Saheb al-Ameri, a spokesman in Najaf, blamed the fighting on the “personal behaviour” of some Mahdi Army members. However, the efforts of the Sadrist movement to downplay the battle in Diwaniyah will not prevent a broader confrontation with the US military.

A series of articles have appeared in the US press vilifying Sadr, blaming his Mahdi Army for the escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq and urging the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to take a tougher stance. In early August, in the aftermath of the mass protest in Baghdad against war on Lebanon, outgoing British ambassador William Patey declared in a leaked memo: “Preventing the Jaish al Mahdi from developing into a state within a state, as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon, will be a priority.”

Patey’s remarks echoed General John Abizaid, US commander in the Middle East, who told National Public Radio in late July that a confrontation with the Mahdi Army was inevitable. “If you don’t do this, you will end up with a situation like you have in Lebanon, where the militia becomes a state within a state.” In comments to the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Abizaid declared: “In my opinion, there are groups within the Mahdi Army that are under the pay of the Iranian government [and] are terrorist organisations.”

Paradoxically, of all the Shiite organisations in Iraq, the Sadrists, who espouse Arab and Iraqi nationalism, are the least likely to rely on Iranian assistance. The party with the closest links is the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which, with Tehran’s tacit support, backed the US occupation from the outset and is a linchpin for the Maliki government.

A Washington Post article entitled “Sadr’s militia and the slaughter in the streets” accused the Mahdi Army of the arbitrary murder of Sunnis. US Lieutenant Colonel Mark Meadows told the newspaper: “I have no doubt... they hold trial courts and execute people.” He described the Mahdi Army as “probably the largest, most aggressive militia in the country... They are a terrorist organisation. They terrorise people.”

In the wake of the Diwaniyah clashes, Time published an article yesterday entitled “Failing the test against Iraqi militias”. Pushing for a sustained offensive, it commented: “For weeks the US and Iraqi militaries have been striking piecemeal at an enemy they are not even allowed to name: Moqtada al-Sahr’s Mahdi Army. And after fierce clashes Monday, it appears that Iraq’s government and military is only willing to go so far in their efforts to rein in the powerful Shiite militia.”

The US-backed attacks in Diwaniyah are clearly a dress rehearsal for further attacks on the Sadrist movement—particularly on the huge slums of Baghdad’s Sadr City. These Shiite suburbs have virtually been a no-go area since the Mahdi Army fought pitched battles with US forces in 2004 in the capital and the southern cities of Najaf and Karbala. During the current US operations aimed at winning back control of Baghdad, the American military has so far avoided Sadr City.

Any offensive against the Mahdi Army will rapidly provoke a crisis in the Maliki government, which rests on a coalition of Shiite fundamentalist parties. The Sadrist movement has 30 parliamentarians and five cabinet ministers, including key portfolios controlling government services. More importantly for Maliki, the support of the Sadrists has enabled his government to deflect growing anger among the Shiite poor over its failure to end the US occupation and improve living standards.

A military assault on Sadrist strongholds would also rupture the country’s highly factionalised security forces. Shiite soldiers, many of whom are ex-militiamen, may simply refuse to fight against the Mahdi Army. The Los Angeles Times noted on Tuesday that 100 Iraqi soldiers from a battalion of 550 stationed in the southeastern province of Maysan refused last weekend to deploy to Baghdad. The refusal of the Shiite troops to move was particularly embarrassing as the unit and its commander were regarded by the US military as among the best in the Iraqi army.

Since the 2004 clashes with the US military, Sadr himself has attempted to maintain an increasingly difficult balancing act—between his social base among impoverished Shiites, on the one hand, and support for the US puppet government, on the other. While he felt compelled to condemn the US-Israeli war on Lebanon and to warn the US against any attack on Iran, Sadr has tried to rein in his Mahdi Army and dissociate himself from more radical elements in the ranks of his movement.

Sadr’s maneouvrings will not prevent an all-out offensive by the US military. As the US occupation sinks further into the quagmire, the Bush administration will be driven to more desperate measures. The denunciations of Sadr’s “state within a state” reflect the fear that Shiite working class enclaves such as Sadr City can become the focus for the eruption of a radical movement directed at the US occupation of Iraq and its militarist policies throughout the region. The danger for Washington is all the greater as it escalates its confrontation with Iran.

It is these considerations that are propelling the US military into reckless and bloody operations against the Mahdi Army, regardless of the consequences.

See Also:
Bush press conference on Iraq: "We're not leaving so long as I'm the president."
[23 August 2006]
Is the US planning a coup in Iraq?
[22 August 2006]
Huge protest in Baghdad against US-Israeli war in Lebanon
[8 August 2006]
"Bush administration deploys thousands more troops in Baghdad
[31 July 2006]

 http://wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/iraq-a31.shtml

Peter Symonds via sam

Comments

Hide the following comment

Congressmember Murtha:

31.08.2006 06:50

Congressmember Murtha: "I'm Disappointed" by Hillary Clinton's Refusal to Endorse Troop Withdrawal Plan

Democracy Now! interviews Congressmember John Murtha (D - PA) about his position on the Iraq war, the Haditha massacre and Sen. Hillary Clinton's refusal to endorse his troop withdrawal plan. On Clinton, Murtha says, "I'm disappointed. I'm not sure why that's happened...I don't know what the reason is she's decided not to endorse my position.

 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/30/1417256

Democracy Now!


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech