I hadn't realized that the Shia were fighting among themselves now. I wonder how many civil wars are underway in that country.
Iraqi Governor Is Assassinated
By STEPHEN FARRELL
Published: August 20, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 20 — The governor of a southern Iraqi province was assassinated today by a roadside bomb, officials said, in the latest attack to open up the prospect of escalating violence among Shiites.
The killing of the official, Muhammad Ali Al-Hassani, was the second time this month that a provincial governor was assassinated. On Aug. 11, the governor of Qadisiya Province was killed in a roadside bomb attack in a southern region that has been a battleground between Shiite factions.
In today’s attack, Mr. Hassani was leaving his house in the Rumaitha area of Samawa in Muthana Province for his office when he and a number of his security personnel were killed by the bomb, an Iraqi army commander said.
”The governor was in continuous battles with the militias in the area,” said Gen. Habeeb Al-Husseini, the commander of 10th division of the Iraqi army in Samawa. “I believe this attack came as retaliation on his attempts to eliminate their influence”.
General Husseini, in a telephone interview, said that a curfew has been imposed on the area and Iraqi forces increased.
“The city is calm now, but we expect some armed confrontations,” he said.
In a statement today, the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki called Mr. Hassani a patriotic figure and called on the armed forces to stand “firmly” against those who want to destabilize the government.
“Again the criminals have committed a horrendous crime to destabilize our beloved South,” Mr. Maliki said. “Those who stand behind this vicious crime want to sink the governorate in chaos and instability to carry out a despicable agenda that wants to harm our people. Therefore, we call on our people in Muthana to practice self-restraint and not to fall into the trap of this rift.”
Iraq has been embroiled in sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites, but the prospect of attacks between rival Shiite groups has also been escalating in some areas.
In the attack just over a week ago in Qadisiya province, the governor, Khalil Jalil Hamza, was killed in a provincial capital where there have been running battles between the police and militiamen from the Mahdi Army. The governor was a member of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, the Shiite party that has been the backbone of the country’s dominant political alliance.
Tension between Iraq’s Shiites and government forces who have been allied with the American forces in crackdowns have also played out in some Shiite areas.
For months before the Qadisiya attack, for example, the Iraqi Army and American forces were fighting to suppress the Mahdi Army and other Shiite fighters.
Today, the Mahdi Army in Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City sealed off roads in the district and stopped civilians from leaving the area. Hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the office there of the radical Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, protesting civilian casualties and demanding a halt to American raids.
“The government, which we elected, is the cause of all this suffering,” said a demonstrator, Muhammad Hassan, 45. “They are watching us being bombed everyday without doing anything. Nobody is trying to save the city from the daily attacks. We know that the Americans don’t need permission from anybody, and Maliki has no authority to stop this. The American will do whatever they want.”
nytimes.com |
