Shia Backlash Wrecks U.S. Strategy
By Tim Ripley
The Scotsman
Sunday 15 August 2004
When troopers of the US 101st Airborne Division first entered the Iraqi city of Najaf 17 months ago,
they were greeted by huge and welcoming crowds chanting "Die Saddam, die".
This weekend, the same streets are littered with the debris from over a week?s sustained and bloody
combat. Empty shell cases and burnt-out vehicles have replaced the flowers and flags of welcome.
A one-day truce to allow peace negotiations ended yesterday with hostilities expected to resume at
any moment. Few expect a lasting calm in Iraq?s Shia regions any time soon.
All over southern Iraq, Shia fighters have traded fire with US, British and Italian troops for more than
10 days in the second major uprising in six months by supporters of the firebrand cleric Moqtada
Al-Sadr.
Iraq?s Shia population appears to be becoming increasingly radicalised by the current rebellion,
making it very difficult for the US and its allies to portray it as the actions of a small, embittered
minority.
Every time US marines and Iraqi troops loyal to the Baghdad regime inch forward into the heart of
Najaf, it seems to boost attendance at demonstrations in the capital in support of Sadr.
This nightmare scenario is the last thing anyone imagined in April last year at the high water mark of
US power in Iraq. The long-oppressed Shia were seen as America?s ?Trojan Horse?, proving a natural,
pro-US majority in post-Saddam Iraq.
Within hours of US troops entering Najaf, CIA agents had approached Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani,
the spiritual leader of Iraq?s Shia population, to try to bring him on side. Although initially stand-offish,
Sistani ordered his people to co-operate with the Americans.
This meant that when US troops pushed into Baghdad, Saddam?s troops were unable to set up
defence lines in the huge Shia slums on the outskirts of the capital. It appeared as if the Shia were
happy just to be no longer subservient to a Sunni-dominated regime in Baghdad.
US efforts to co-opt the Shia were intense, and they even began flying exiled Shia clerics back into
Iraq to build up support for their occupation.
When one of these, Abdul Majid Khoei, was hacked to death in Najaf by rival clerics, it was becoming
clear Iraq?s majority religious community was not united and sections of it were unhappy with US
occupation.
The well-respected Sistani started to engage with the Americans over last summer as they began
negotiations with Iraq?s community leaders about the formation of an interim government. His line was
that co-operating with the Americans would speed the rebuilding of the country and bring forward the
day when US troops would leave Iraq.
However, Sistani?s ?long game? strategy was not welcomed by all Shia, who were impatient for
improvements to their living conditions after being at the bottom of the pile under Saddam?s regime.
As the long, hot summer of power cuts and water shortages dragged on, Sistani?s message of ?jam
tomorrow? became difficult to sell in some Shia neighbourhoods. The first signs of restlessness came
as the former US pro-consul, Paul Bremer, unveiled his first plan for the future government of Iraq,
which did not feature direct elections being held for years.
It appeared the Americans were following the example of the colonial British rule in the 1920s by
setting up a Sunni-dominated central government and again denying the Shia their rightful place in
power.
Sistani then upped the ante considerably when he demanded that Iraqis be able to elect their first
government. This seriously rattled Bremer and he rapidly had to redraw his plans.
He even had to call in the loathed UN to try to persuade Sistani that an election was not practical
until 2005 at the earliest. The Grand Ayatollah reluctantly agreed to this compromise and gave his
blessing to the interim government that nominally assumed Iraq?s sovereignty in June.
The first six months of 2004 saw little improvement in the living conditions in the huge Shia slums of
Baghdad or in the impoverished towns of southern Iraq, so when radical clerics allied to Sadr started to
ramp up their anti-US rhetoric they found a receptive audience.
Demands for rapid political change to ensure the Shia received their rightful say in the future of Iraq
and an equitable slice of its wealth began to multiply.
Despite losing hundreds of men in the failed uprising in April and many more last week, Sadr appears
to have been able to replace his lost fighters.
His strongest support appears to be in the ?Sadr city? region of Baghdad and Najaf itself, as well as
Al Amarah to the west. In these areas popular support is widespread, but in Nasariyah and Basra to
the south his fighters have had less success, being unable to overpower the pro-coalition Iraqi police
and security forces.
In Nasariyah and Basra, Italian and British forces have been able successfully to portray Sadr?s
militia as nihilist elements that have no positive agenda for the future of Iraq.
The dilemma for the US forces attacking Najaf is that the more damage they inflict on Sadr?s forces
and the Iman Ali mosque, where they are taking refuge, the more likely the population of southern Iraq
will swing behind the cleric and his fighters.
There are clear signs in the deaths of two British soldiers, including 21-year-old Black Watch private
Marc Fern, from Glenrothes, who were both killed by roadside bombs last week, that Sadr?s forces are
already gaining ground.
Iraqi public opinion is fickle and heavy civilian casualties or damage to the Iman Ali mosque could
create a wave of support for Sadr that could fatally destabilise the government in Baghdad.
In the last uprising in April, Sistani was a restraining influence and ensured the revolt did not turn
Sadr into a Shia hero. With the Grand Ayatollah in London for medical treatment - he had successful
heart surgery yesterday - the field is open for Sadr to set the agenda.
His threats to blow up oil pipelines have closed the southern oil fields, cutting 90% of all revenue to
the Baghdad government at a stroke. Attitudes are hardening on both sides. The belligerent comments
by National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, after the collapse of the peace talks yesterday,
warning "military clearing operations" would begin again soon, seem to have closed any negotiated
solution to the current revolt.
Go to Original
To Mahdi Militiaman, Firing on Americans Is Act of 'Patriotism'
By Saad Sarhan and Doug Struck
Washington Post
Sunday 15 August 2004
NAJAF, Iraq - Ahmed Eisa sent his wife and two young children out of Najaf "to make sure there is
someone to remember me after I die" and took up his post near the shrine of Ali, he said, with an old
AK-47 rifle to shoot at U.S. soldiers.
He says he is willing to die -- he insists he wants to die -- with the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to a
young Shiite cleric, because he is convinced that the United States intends to stay in Iraq and oppress
Shiite Muslims.
As negotiations to end fighting in Najaf broke down Saturday, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers again prepared
for an assault on the followers of the cleric, Moqtada Sadr. And on the other side of the sprawling
cemetery that surrounds the shrine, Sadr's followers also prepared for battle.
Eisa, 34, who usually works in a graphics shop designing business cards and stationery, is a
gunman for the Mahdi Army. He prefers the title sniper, but in fact, his ancient Kalashnikov is not very
accurate, and the bullets often jam in the mechanism.
His job does not require accuracy, though.
"I am supposed to shoot at the American tanks to harass them, to draw their attention, to give my
colleague some time to fire at them with an RPG" -- a rocket-propelled grenade, he said.
Eisa performed that duty five times during the recent fighting, darting from his position in the second
line of Mahdi Army fighters. The first line hides behind a wall next to the cemetery, and the second line
is poised in the warren of century-old brown brick houses that abuts the cemetery.
The Americans are on the other side. In between, among tombs as old as 1,300 years, are the
contested killing grounds.
"I know the Americans have better weapons. They have better plans. They have uniforms that cost
$3,000, and we have only our clothes," Eisa said. "But I have principles. I have holy land to defend. I
have family to protect, so I feel stronger than them. The occupation forces are nothing but mercenaries
who fight for money, so I feel stronger."
Eisa's fervor is shared by his fellow fighters in the Mahdi Army, though his background is not. Sadr
has grown his militia -- their self-adopted name of army is somewhat grandiose -- from poor and young
Shiites drawn to his revolutionary rhetoric. Eisa, however, is a graduate of a computer vocational
college, an educated man who could be called middle-class and middle-aged.
A lean man at 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, his pale face, glasses and uncalloused hands suggest a life
spent indoors more than out. A full beard indicates his faith.
Eisa -- whose name means Jesus, considered a prophet in Islam -- explained in a lengthy telephone
interview and further conversations in Najaf how he arrived at this point. For Iraq's Shiites, a sense of
oppression comes legitimately. Shiites suffered under former president Saddam Hussein, and Eisa
said he counts 27 relatives who were executed during that three-decade era.
"We don't even know where they were buried," he said.
After high school, Eisa fulfilled his compulsory military duty in the Republican Guard. He deserted
three times, he said, which was not unusual for men living in the harsh conditions of the military. Each
time, he returned under an amnesty.
He finished his service in 1993, then attended computer classes at a technological institute. He
finished, got married and in 1998 began working in a graphics shop. Eisa said he welcomed the fall of
Hussein, but not the U.S. occupation.
"I am old enough now to differentiate between occupation and freedom," he said. "It's not true that the
Americans came to get rid of Saddam. It was only a trick to occupy the country."
"We all know that Bush announced twice that this is a crusade. So we know they are targeting a
certain group," the Shiites, he said. "We know the strategic importance of Iraq in the region and the
wealth of our country. They want to control it. They want to control our oil, our wealth and the world."
"There is something called patriotism," he added. "I like my country, and I saw the U.S. forces did
not come to protect us. So I wanted to follow the leader who can demand my rights and defeat the
occupation. The U.S. forces are occupiers, so we have to resist them."
Eisa fought in what he calls "the first uprising" against the Americans, fierce street fighting in Najaf
between U.S. forces and insurgents in April that left hundreds of Iraqis dead. The Iraqi government that
officially took power June 28 is nothing but a puppet of the Americans, he said, and Eisa willingly
answered the call to arms nine days ago when fighting broke out again.
He kissed his daughter, 3-year-old Um Albanin, and his 6-month-old son, Mohammed Ali, and sent
them with his wife to the safer outskirts of Najaf. He then joined his unit, the 315th Battalion.
The worst fighting was Thursday, he said.
"I smelled the weapons, and the blood of dead people," Eisa said, recounting the pitched battle in the
graveyard that resulted in scores of casualties. "I don't know how many were killed. I heard the bullets
and even felt the heat of the bullets, but God protects me.
"Sometimes we had wounded people, and we couldn't evacuate them because I didn't want to leave
my post. I just wanted to die for my cause. So I stayed in my place, hoping to become a martyr.
"I saw one of my colleagues try to attack a tank with his RPG. The U.S. soldier shot him in the head,
about 25 meters from me. His head was destroyed. It was a terrible scene."
As the fighting stopped Saturday while negotiators tried to work out a cease-fire, Eisa mixed in a
throng of thousands of supporters who came from inside and outside Najaf to show their support for the
Mahdi Army. They milled about outside the shrine. When he found a colleague he had not seen since
the battle, the two hugged.
Eisa has an identity card -- "Sadr's Martyr Division," it says -- but like the others in the militia, he
doesn't have a uniform. He wears loose fitting black pants, a casual shirt and a green cloth around his
wrist to signify closeness to Allah.
As Sadr passed the crowd, Eisa joined in chants, thrusting his fist in the air and stamping his feet.
"Long live Sadr! Allawi and the government are blasphemous," he shouted, referring to Prime Minister
Ayad Allawi.
The temporary lull in fighting during the negotiations boosted the spirits of the men. "This is a great
victory for the Iraqis and the Mahdi Army," Eisa said. "This is evidence that we defeated the occupation
forces and we are a legitimate resistance demanding the Iraqi's rights. This is victory."
But if so, it was short-lived. The negotiations faltered late in the day. Eisa and the other militiamen
slipped back to their posts at the edge of the cemetery, waiting for night. Waiting for the Americans.
Struck reported from Baghdad. |
