Iraq militias splintering into radicalized cells
New groups appear more ruthless in use of violence
By Sudarsan Raghavan
The Washington Post
Updated: 1:25 a.m. MT Oct 19, 2006
BAGHDAD - The young Shiite men, some wearing black masks, glided from
house to house in search of Sunni Muslim men. They arrived at the
two-story dwelling of Mohammed Hussein clutching a bomb, neighbors said.
As his mother stood at the front gate, they detonated it. Shrapnel and
glass flew, sending her to the hospital. A wall fell on a neighbor,
sending him to his grave.
Hussein, who is Sunni, arrived home an hour later and immediately blamed
a man called Aziz Dinar. Residents in this western Baghdad neighborhood
of Hurriyah -- in Arabic, it means freedom -- said Dinar heads the local
office of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and elements of his militia, the
Mahdi Army.
"We know he is behind all the incidents taking place in Hurriyah,"
Hussein, 29, a civil servant, said with confidence. "He is the one who
destroyed our house."
But in an interview, a leader in Sadr's movement in western Baghdad
denied knowing Dinar. "This Aziz Dinar does not represent us in
Hurriyah. There are other representatives," said Abdul Hadi
al-Mohammadawi. "I have never heard of him."
In the void forged by the sectarian tensions gripping Baghdad, militias
are further splintering into smaller, more radicalized cells, signifying
a new and potentially more volatile phase in the struggle for the
capital.
Iraqis and U.S. officials blame militias for mass kidnappings and
slayings, for setting up unauthorized checkpoints and for causing much
of the recent carnage.
Senior U.S. military and intelligence officials say they have identified
at least 23 militias -- some are Sunni, but most are Shiite. Some are
paramilitary offshoots of the Mahdi Army or have broken away entirely
from Sadr's command structure. Others seem inspired by Lebanon's Shiite
Hezbollah guerrilla movement.
"In some ways it make it easier for me because I have digestible doses I
can deal with that might not be reinforcing one another," a senior U.S.
military official said at a recent briefing with reporters, speaking on
condition of anonymity. "But at the same time, it creates problems for
me because it is harder to find them when they are splintered, to
identify who they are."
Rogue death squads
The new breed of militias embody the changed texture of violence in the
fourth year of war -- from attacks against Baathists and loyalists of
former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, to attacks on average Iraqis
purely because of their sect or their wealth. They appear more localized
and more ruthless than their predecessors. They deploy death squads and
explode bombs to destroy houses. They have carved neighborhoods into
fiefdoms, governing through fear and intimidation.
The fragmentation poses new obstacles to U.S. and Iraqi forces trying to
quell the sectarian strife that U.S. commanders fear could plunge the
nation into civil war. Militias have already replaced the Sunni Arab
insurgency as the biggest challenge to U.S. efforts to bring stability
to Iraq. Senior U.S. military officials privately acknowledge they do
not have the manpower to conduct urban sweeps in every neighborhood or
prevent areas they have cleared from again becoming havens of
lawlessness and killing.
Nowadays, in some parts of Baghdad, it is not uncommon to hear residents
blame small militias, criminal gangs, rogue death squads or assassins
for their woes -- instead of Iraq's two major militias, the Mahdi Army
and the Badr Brigades, an arm of the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq, a powerful Shiite religious party.
In the mostly Shiite neighborhood of al-Amil, the Haider Hamida gang
rules. It has about 50 Shiite members, mostly young, jobless men from
poor sections of the neighborhood, residents said. They orbit around
shops, street corners and checkpoints. Many have ties to the Mahdi Army
or are still members, said residents.
The gang is named after the pseudonym of its chief executioner, a short,
skinny man in his early 20s with black hair and a thin moustache. Some
residents said he was a member of a police commando unit. Both U.S. and
Iraqi officials have expressed concern over the infiltration of Iraqi
police units by militias and death squads. Hamida is said to have killed
at least 100 people in recent months.
"We started hearing about his gang after Samarra. They became active
after this incident," said Majid Abu Sara, 43, a Sunni resident of
al-Amil, who asked that his full name not be used because he feared for
his safety. He was referring to the February bombing of a Shiite shrine
in Samarra, about 65 miles north of Baghdad, that triggered cycles of
sect-based revenge killings. Most of the other splinter groups also
emerged after the attack.
The Haider Hamida gang arrived at Abu Sara's parents' doorstep three
months ago, he recalled. They placed an improvised bomb at the front
door, near their car. Within seconds, the house and the car were
engulfed in flames. Abu Sara's 90-year-old father, his 70-year-old
mother and 10 other relatives fled out the back.
"They displaced them just because they are Sunni," said Abu Sara,
describing the motive for the attack. "My parents have not gone back."
At a recent briefing with reporters, another senior U.S. military
official carried a list of the 23 militias. He began to rattle off names
-- "Iraqiya Hezbollah, Khadimiya Brigades" -- but an aide stopped him,
noting that he was revealing vital intelligence.
In August, U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted house-to-house sweeps in the
western neighborhood of Ghazaliya, part of its Operation Together
Forward to bring security to the capital. At the time, U.S. officials
asserted that there was progress in pushing out militias and insurgents,
and bringing down violence.
But by September, after the sweeps, "we saw deaths squads at least come
in," a senior coalition intelligence official said at a recent briefing
with reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the
issue's sensitivity. The death squads had links to groups inside Iraqi
government ministries, he said.
‘Too accommodating’
One reason for the militia splintering is that differences have emerged
within Sadr's movement over his decision to join Iraq's political
process. The senior coalition intelligence official said he knew of at
least "six major players" who have left Sadr's movement because they no
longer find him radical enough and see him as "too accommodating to the
coalition."
Yet many of the new groups, described as rogue elements, continue to
link themselves with the Mahdi Army.
"They will execute operations and obtain funding under the guise of
Jaish al-Mahdi," said the senior coalition intelligence official, using
the Arabic name for the Mahdi Army. "But they are effectively beyond his
control," he said, referring to Sadr.
These groups represent a threat to Sadr's image and political
aspirations at a time when he controls four government ministries and 30
seats in the Iraqi parliament.
"There are definitely lots of terrorists who have used the Sadr office
to achieve their goals to ruin the reputation of this army which has
struggled for the service of the people," said Mohammadawi. "The Sadr
office is trying very hard to capture any terrorist elements which could
harm the security of society and Iraq in general."
When gunmen in police cars and police uniforms raided the offices of an
Iraqi satellite television channel, killing at least eight people,
suspicion immediately fell on the Mahdi Army. Hours after the slayings,
Sadr released a strongly worded statement warning that he would release
the names and excommunicate any Mahdi Army militiamen who were
conducting attacks against Iraqis.
The senior coalition intelligence official said he believed that Sadr
was honestly trying to take control over his forces.
In neighborhoods such as al-Amil, the attacks have become bolder. Haider
Hamida walks the streets without wearing a mask, said residents. Two
months ago, he and some members of his gang stopped a car at a
checkpoint and targeted a man who sold milk in the neighborhood,
recalled Ahmed Abu Abdallah, another resident.
"Haider pulled him out of the car and they started hitting him with
pistols on his head," said Abu Abdallah. "They put him in their truck
and drove off." Later that day, the man's relatives found his body
dumped less than a mile from the checkpoint.
U.S. officials are concerned that the Shiite splinter groups could reach
out to the Shiite rulers in neighboring Iran for support. They share the
same ideology and Iran is eager to provide funding, said the senior
coalition intelligence official.
‘I do whatever I like’
"As time goes on, you're going to continue to see elements break off the
organization and become sort of these semi-independent or independent
players, but none of them remain independent for long," said the
official. "They all find a sponsor."
In Hurriyah, Aziz Dinar acts as if he has strong backers. Residents said
he has become wealthy through kidnapping for ransom and looting local
stores. Poor youths from the neighborhood continue to sign up for his
militia.
"He killed a couple of his own neighbors from his own street," said
Hussein. "The whole area was surrounded by his men. They carried
rocket-propelled grenades. The Iraqi army was in the neighborhood, but
they did nothing.
"That day, he told people, 'I do whatever I like.' "
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15322218/
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
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