Iraqi police official killed, defiant pilgrims march
Colin McMahon
Chicago Tribune
Mar. 29, 2005 12:00 AM
BAGHDAD - Insurgents struck again Monday in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood, killing a police precinct chief. But Shiite Muslim pilgrims defied threats of violence to march through the troubled area, waving their flags in pride and beating their chests in piety.
The events captured two key aspects of the evolving Iraq conflict: The mostly Sunni insurgents are piling up victims among Iraqi security forces, particularly Shiites. But that has failed to deter the majority Shiites from pressing their religious and political agendas.
The assassination of Col. Abdul Karim Fahad Abbass fit the insurgent pattern, and it was quickly claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq, a group loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The police commander was going to work when gunmen pulled their car next to his and opened fire, killing the driver as well. advertisement
The slaying was the second to hit the Abbass family this month. It was also the latest bloodshed to stain Dora. Calm and industrious as recently as a year ago, the large district in south Baghdad has become a Sunni-Shiite battleground, a haven for insurgents and criminals, and a community drenched in fear and suspicion.
Yet Hamid Ogla al-Lami and thousands of other Shiite pilgrims went anyway Monday. The Shiites walked the expressway that divides Dora, making their way toward Karbala and ceremonies to honor Imam Hussein, whose seventh-century killing was instrumental in Islam's Sunni-Shiite split.
"We are challenging the terrorists by walking here," Lami said, standing on the highway shoulder as other walkers and cars loaded with pilgrims passed by.
To Lami's left were residential neighborhoods where insurgents and criminals have staged a series of killings and kidnappings. To his right were open fields from which insurgents launch attacks on Iraqi forces and U.S. troops traveling the highway.
"We have not had any trouble today," said Lami, 35, a worker. He had left his house in an industrial area of east Baghdad six hours earlier and expected to reach Karbala by tonight. "We have seen a lot of people offering us food and water. They wish us God's blessings."
Amid the insurgent violence, most Shiite religious and political leaders have urged their followers not to respond in kind. That message has taken hold among pilgrims such as Mehdi al-Moussawi, 35, who when asked what he did for a living said, "Soccer player."
"We are not afraid of the terrorists; we fear only God," he said. "We don't have feelings of revenge because we are sure that God will get revenge."
Yet some Shiite militia members are attacking Sunnis they deem culpable from the Saddam Hussein era or responsible for the current violence. And some Shiite leaders warn that Shiite patience and tolerance for suffering can last only so long.
Other violence Monday was also directed primarily at Shiite targets, including several pilgrims, and at Iraqi security forces. Bombings and shootings killed at least a dozen police, soldiers and civilians in Baghdad, Mosul and Musayyib, which is 40 miles south of Baghdad, news services reported.
"Iraq has bled enough," Interim Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Nakib said at a news conference. "Iraqi blood has become cheaper than anything in the world."
An ally of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and a member of the interim government, Nakib is not expected to return as interior minister once a new transitional government is installed. But two months after Iraqi voters braved threats of violence to elect a National Assembly, negotiations are still dragging on over will take over from Allawi and his Cabinet.
The National Assembly was scheduled to meet today. But it was expected to vote only on a speaker and two deputies, relatively unimportant posts in the system designed to move Iraq toward a new constitution and a full, democratically elected government.
Army Gen. John Abizaid, who as chief of U.S. Central Command has responsibility for Iraq, expressed concern about the delay in naming a government.
"The more uncertainty, the greater chance for escalated violence," Abizaid told CNN.
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