The debate over what
to call Iraq's war is lost on many Iraqis as shadowy Shiite militias
and Sunni insurgents wage their deadly conflict
By Aamer Madhani
Tribune staff reporter
April 14, 2006
BAGHDAD --
The conflict in Iraq is not marked by front lines or raging battles
between warring Iraqi factions. There is no Green Line separating
sectarian militias, as in Beirut in the 1970s and 1980s, nor are there
clearly defined armies and commanders. But by any measure, Iraqis will
tell you that their country is embroiled in what amounts to civil war.
Since the Feb. 22 bombing of the al-Askari mosque, a Shiite shrine
in the city of Samarra, waves of suicide bombers have struck other
Shiite targets, killing hundreds of civilians. They have been followed
by reprisals in the forms of assassinations and kidnappings, with
hundreds of Sunni Muslims bound, gagged and shot in the head across
Baghdad and surrounding towns.
"We are losing each day, as an average, 50 to 60 people throughout the
country, if not more," former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told the
British Broadcasting Corp. last month. "If this is not civil war, then
God knows what civil war is."
The dictionary definition says a civil war involves war between
geographical sections or political factions of the same nation. An
estimated 30,000 Iraqis have died in violence since the U.S.-led
invasion in March 2003. There are no accurate figures of how many were
killed by U.S. troops, but slayings of Iraqis by fellow Iraqis have
increased dramatically as the war has progressed.
Many U.S. and Iraqi officials insist that the violence engulfing
the country does not constitute civil war. But by any reasonable
standard, "the conflict in Iraq is a civil war," said James Fearon, a
Stanford University political scientist who specializes in the study of
civil conflict. "The rate [of killings] is comparable to Sri Lanka, the
Lebanese war and Bosnia," all of which were widely regarded as civil
wars.
Larry Diamond, a former adviser to the U.S.-led Coalition
Provisional Authority in Iraq and fellow at the Hoover Institution on
War, Revolution and Peace, said the question is only one of semantics.
"You can use whatever language you want to describe it, but the
violence is increasing and it is becoming more vengeful and polarized,"
Diamond said.
Thousands of Iraqi families--about 60,000 people--have fled their
homes in the face of intimidation campaigns by Sunni insurgents and
Shiite militias, most of them since the al-Askari bombing, according to
the nation's Ministry of Displacement and Migration.
Mubarak warns of civil war
The cycle of sectarian violence has put the entire region on edge.
Last weekend, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned that Iraq was
close to full-scale civil war, questioned whether the Shiite-dominated
government had an unhealthy relationship with Iran and speculated that
the situation could further destabilize the already troubled Middle
East.
On the ground in Baghdad, U.S. commanders responsible for training
and equipping Iraqi security forces acknowledge that the Iraqi police
rolls are riddled with members of Shiite militias. These militias are
allied with such powerful clerics as Motqada Sadr, who controls the
Madhi Army which twice in 2004 fought street battles against U.S.
troops in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
U.S. officials say the militias have a major role in the sectarian
attacks.
"We're not stupid. We know for a fact that they're killing
people," said Lt. Col. Chris Pease, deputy commander of the U.S.
military's police training programs in eastern Baghdad. "We dig the
damn bodies out of the sewer all the time. But there's a difference
between knowing something and proving something."
Pease said he recently had a conversation with an Iraqi police
officer that underscored how vexing the militias have become. Out of
earshot of the police officer's commander, Pease said, he asked the
young cop to give him an honest analysis of what's going on in the
street.
"He said to me, `Do you want me . . . to tell you the truth?'"
Pease recalled. "His assessment was that the militias are everywhere
... and his officers weren't going to do anything about that because
their units are infiltrated and they know what the cost would be for
working against the militias."
Sunni-oriented television stations run messages on news programs,
warning viewers not to cooperate with the Shiite-dominated security
forces unless the Iraqis are accompanied by U.S. troops. Shiite leaders
accuse Sunni politicians of being complicit in insurgent attacks.
The violence is fueled by years of resentment among Shiites for
their persecution under the Sunni-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein
and by fears among Sunnis that they would be persecuted in turn under a
Shiite government.
In a recent internal staff report jointly written for Congress by
U.S. Embassy and military officials in Iraq, seven of Iraq's 18
provinces were listed in serious or critical condition in regard to the
political, security and economic situation, The New York Times reported
Sunday. The U.S. government report, written before the al-Askari
bombing, stands in stark contrast with U.S. officials' public
assertions that instability is isolated in a few hot spots.
After an attack on the Buratha mosque in Baghdad last week killed
more than 80 Shiites, Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer, leader in the Shiite
political party Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, accused
Sunni leaders of spreading lies about Shiite militias, including
allegations that renegade security forces within the Interior Ministry
were using the mosque as a torture center.
Since the attack, mourners have gathered daily in the mosque's
courtyard. They mourn in front of memorials fashioned from
blood-spattered turbans, a burned wheelchair and photographs of men who
died in the bombing.
Haji Haider, a spokesman for al-Sagheer, said Sunni leaders are
testing the patience of the Shiite masses. "[Grand Ayatollah Ali
Sistani, the country's leading Shiite cleric] has told the people to
show restraint, but the Sunni politicians are motivating their people
to violent action against the Shiite mosques and neighborhoods," Haider
said. "How long will the [Shiite] people show restraint?"
For Raad Taha, a Sunni taxi driver, the civil war began when a
Shiite acquaintance from his favorite tea shop falsely accused him of
being an insurgent responsible for the car bombing deaths of several
Shiites.
Eight armed men from the Mahdi Army stormed Taha's apartment about
three weeks ago and dragged him away in front of his wife and three
young children. They told his terrified wife that they were only taking
him to their office to ask him a few questions and would have him back
within an hour.
Instead, they held Taha for more than 24 hours in which they beat
him and interrogated him. Then they ran him and his family out of their
home.
"The Shiites don't want us to live together [with them]," Taha said.
"They've made a war against the Sunnis."
Hopes for unity government
U.S. and Iraqi officials have said the civil strife would be eased
by the quick formation of a national unity government followed by the
disarming of the Shiite militias. But four months after the election of
parliament, no government has been formed. Sunnis, Kurds and secular
politicians have objected to the Shiite coalition's nominee for prime
minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Rival factions within the Shiite coalition have also turned
against al-Jaafari, publicly stating that he has become too divisive
while privately maneuvering to push their own candidates for the top
position.
Meanwhile, the Shiite militias have asserted their will.
Along with the Mahdi Army, there is the Badr Organization, founded
in Iran and affiliated with the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution
in Iraq. Sunnis accuse both militias of directing much of the sectarian
violence that has plagued the country since the Samarra bombing.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has said that militias are now a
bigger problem than the Sunni-led insurgency. On a recent visit to
Baghdad, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that solving the
militia problem must be the new government's priority.
But from top officials to the lowest street cop, there appears to be no
will to disband the militias.
"It's not the time to ask the militias to put down their arms when
we cannot properly provide security," said Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem
Abdul Rahman al-Yusuf, a Sunni. The general said his national police
brigade is 87 percent Shiite and includes some members aligned with the
Badr Organization. "When the Iraqi army and police can provide
security, then we can tell the militias that it is time to stop."
Despite the obstacles, U.S. troops working with the Iraqi interior
forces remain optimistic that they can reduce the influence of militias
in the force.
"Training and equipping a force, while knowing that at least some
element is infiltrated by militias, is a difficult situation," said
Capt. Ryan Lawrence, an intelligence officer with the U.S. Army's 2nd
Brigade Special Police Transition Team. "They are putting themselves at
great risk and, overwhelmingly, most of these guys are here for the
right reason. The younger [police officers] are eager for training and
want to be taught to do it the right way."
Other armed Shiites, however, are not doing it the right way.
Taha, the Sunni taxi driver, said he was lucky to be freed by his
captors.
He said the Mahdi Army militiamen drove him around the capital for
several hours before finally taking him to a house in the militia's
bastion of Sadr City, a neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad. There
they beat him with wood planks and their fists and feet while screaming
at him to confess that he was a Sunni terrorist involved in car bombing
plots.
During the pummeling, Taha tried to explain that he is indeed a
Sunni but not a terrorist. He lived with his Shiite wife in the
predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Bayaa for the past 15 years. He
was struggling to make ends meet as a taxi driver but he would never
kill anyone for all the money in the world, Taha said he told his
captors.
His captors brought in a bottle of bleach and razor blades. They
told him that if he didn't confess, they would tear him apart and pour
the bleach over his wounds. Taha said he told the Mahdi men that they
might be able to get him to confess through torture but none of it
would be true.
Taha said his hands were bound and he was forced to lie on his
side and his captors turned him toward a wall so he could not see them.
One of the militiamen told him they were bringing in a witness who had
been secretly monitoring him.
The witness said Taha was regularly traveling to a Sunni
neighborhood and meeting with insurgents. How was it possible, the
voice implored, that a poor man could purchase a car, implying that he
was earning money by working for the insurgency.
"It was a man named Hassan that I knew from the tea shop," Taha
said. "I screamed out his name and said, `Why are you telling all these
lies?' He knows that I was born on Haifa Street [a famous street that
runs through a Sunni neighborhood] and was meeting with my old friends.
I only had money for the car because I had sold a piece of land that
was distributed by Saddam many years back to all the workers at the
phone company where I worked."
Taha said the leader among his captors soon determined that he was
telling the truth. The Mahdi men turned their questioning on Hassan and
sent Taha home in a hired taxi.
As soon as he walked into his apartment, his cell phone rang. One
of his Mahdi Army captors was on the line and told Taha to hand the
phone to his wife.
Abductors' apology
"He said to her he was sorry that they kept me longer than one
hour as they promised her, and we should tell no one about the
incident," said Taha, with tears streaming as he recalled the incident.
"When she hung up the phone, I told her that we had to leave [the
apartment]."
Taha's wife took the three children and is living with her parents
in eastern Baghdad. Taha has been staying at the homes of friends and
family in western Baghdad, sleeping on their floors. In fear of the
Mahdi Army, he won't stay anywhere for more than a couple of nights.
Other families have fared even worse in their run-ins with militias.
Mohammed al-Jubouri, 40, said two nephews were killed by suspected
Mahdi Army members in a matter of days last month.
The first, Essa al-Ani, 20, was riddled with bullets only 500
yards from his family home in western Baghdad on March 17, when men
wearing the signature black outfits of the Mahdi Army drove through his
neighborhood and randomly emptied gun magazines at pedestrians.
The next day, after al-Ani's funeral, al-Jubouri's nephew Ahmed
al-Jubouri asked a cousin to drop him across town at a garage where his
car was being repaired. It was the last time he was seen alive.
Mohammed al-Jubouri said he and other relatives combed the police
stations and hospitals. Finally, at one police station, an officer said
he recalled manning a checkpoint with some Mahdi Army officials who had
taken a young man matching Ahmed's description into custody.
Three days after he was last seen, Ahmed al-Jubouri's body was
found in the morgue. His corpse, with a bullet wound to the head and
markings on his inner thighs that appeared to be caused by an electric
drill, had been recovered in a trash heap.
"We need to divide the country into three," Mohammed al-Jubouri said.
"We cannot live with these people."
- - -
Violence escalates in wake of mosque bombing
The Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra triggered a
surge in sectarian violence in Iraq that some are calling a civil war.
However, Bush administration officials disagree with that assessment.
KEY: SECTARIAN VIOLENCE / NOTABLE QUOTES
Feb. 22
A bomb destroys the golden dome of al-Askari, one of Shiite
Islam's holiest shrines, in Samarra. At least 25 Sunni mosques in the
city are attacked in retaliation.
Feb. 23
More than 100 people die in sectarian violence triggered by the Samarra
bombing. Among those killed are several Sunni imams.
Feb. 25
At least 45 are killed in continuing sectarian violence, including the
massacre of 13 members of a Shiite family in Baqouba.
Feb. 26
Mortar shells strike a Shiite area of Baghdad, killing at least 10.
Feb. 28
At least 60 die in Baghdad, most of them killed when five bombs
detonate in Shiite neighborhoods.
March 3
Suspected Sunni Arab insurgents kill 10 Shiite factory workers near
Baqouba.
March 8
The bodies of 18 Sunni men are found stuffed into an abandoned
truck in western Baghdad. Many of the victims show signs of torture.
March 12
Bombings at two markets in Baghdad's heavily Shiite Sadr City
Neighborhood kill at least 58.
March 14
Iraqi police announce the discovery of 87 bodies in Sunni and Shiite
neighborhoods of Baghdad.
March 17
Nineteen Shiite pilgrims are killed or wounded by bombings and
drive-by shootings in Baghdad while traveling to the holy city of
Karbala.
March 5
"I do not believe that they're on the verge of civil war."
--Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on NBC's
"Meet the Press"
March 13
"I wish I could tell you that the violence is waning and that the
road ahead will be smooth. It will not. There will be more tough
fighting and more days of struggle, and we will see more images of
chaos and carnage in the days and months to come."
--President Bush
March 19
"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. ...
If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is."
--Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, to the BBC
March 21
"We all recognize ... that there's sectarian violence. But the way
I look at the situation is that the Iraqis took a look and decided not
to go to civil war. ...
This is a moment where the Iraqis had a chance to fall apart, and they
didn't."
--President Bush
April 6
At least 10 are killed in a car bombing at a Shiite cemetery outside
the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf.
April 7
Suicide bombers kill more than 80 at the Shiite Buratha mosque in
Baghdad.
April 8
"Is there a civil war? Yes, there is an undeclared civil war that has
been there for a year or more.
All these bodies that are discovered in Baghdad, the slaughter of
pilgrims heading to holy sites, the explosions, the destruction, the
attacks against the mosques are all part of this."
--Iraqi Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal
Thursday (April 13)
A Shiite shrine in Baqouba is destroyed by three explosions. A Sunni
Arab politician's brother is assassinated in Baghdad.
Sources: Tribune reports, The White House, Associated Press
Chicago Tribune
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COMING SUNDAY
How the U.S. role in Iraq's war raises troubling legal questions.
- - -
About the reporter
Tribune staff reporter Aamer Madhani has made eight reporting
trips to Iraq since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, spending more than
a year in the country in the process. He has covered the hand-over of
sovereignty by the United States, the trial of Saddam Hussein, two
national elections and the referendum on the new Iraqi Constitution. He
also has covered U.S. troops in the field. Madhani, a native of Forest
Park, joined the Tribune in 2001.