NEWS: The ongoing evolution of the Mahdi Army baffles observers

NEWS: The ongoing evolution of the Mahdi Army baffles observers
Written by Henry Adams
Saturday, 30 August 2008
http://www.ufppc. org/content/ view/7868/ 35/

India's Hindu said Saturday that Moqtada al-Sadr announced last Thursday that the Mahdi Army "will suspend all military operations indefinitely" and will exclude any who disobey the order.[1] -- "Analysts point out that Mr. al-Sadr has increasingly fallen under the influence of Iran, which is playing a key role in creating conditions that would see the exit of foreign troops," wrote Atul Aneja. -- In addition to an "armed [section] for resisting only the occupiers," a new unarmed organization is to be created called "Mumahidoon, " an Arabic word “meaning those who pave the way,” possibly modeled on the Iranian Basij, which "plays a key role in enforcing the regime’s social agenda." -- But AFP reported that "dozens" of radicals associated with Sadr's movement continued to proclaim their loyalty to al-Sadr as they "scrambled on Friday to sign blood oaths to continue their fight against U.S. forces in Iraq despite an order from their leader Moqtada al-Sadr for them to lay down their arms. -- Children as young as 10 were among those seen cutting their thumbs with scalpels and putting a bloodied fingerprint to a document circulated by members of the Sadr movement in the cleric's eastern Baghdad bastion of Sadr City."[2] -- Reuters reported that "it is yet unclear if Shi'ite fighters are preparing another offensive with Iranian help, a U.S. intelligence official said."[3] -- Reporting on Friday from Najaf for the Associated Press, Hamza Hendawi and Qassim Abdul-Zahra suggested the class basis of the rivalry between the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (formerly known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq), which draws support from Iraq's merchant class, and the Sadr movement, which represents poor workers.[4] -- The former seeks to create a largely autonomous southern Shiite region of Iraq, of which Najaf might be the capital. -- (Sadr's movement, on the other hand, is resolutely Iraqi nationalist, a point rarely acknowledged in U.S. mainstream media, and one mentioned in none of these articles.) ...

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1.

International

UNARMED CADRE SOON: AL-SADR
By Atul Aneja

Hindu (India)
August 30, 2008

http://www.hindu. com/2008/ 08/30/stories/ 2008083056681400 .htm

DUBAI -- Leading Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has announced that his 60,000 strong Mahdi Army will suspend all military operations indefinitely. He added that a new unarmed cadre of activists was being developed that would be active in the social and cultural fields.

“The Mahdi Army suspension will be valid indefinitely and anyone who does not follow this order will not be considered a member of this group,” said Mr. al-Sadr in the statement on Thursday. The decision assumes significance as the Mahdi army has in the past spearheaded two rebellions against the American occupation forces in Iraq.

Analysts point out that Mr. al-Sadr has increasingly fallen under the influence of Iran, which is playing a key role in creating conditions that would see the exit of foreign troops.

Elaborating on the new directive, a senior member of the al-Sadr group, Sayid Fareed Al-Fadhili said the Mahdi Army would have a two-tiered structure. “The first section is the armed one for resisting only the occupiers and to not carry weapons against any other side. The second part will undertake ethical and cultural issues to change the society from its tendencies toward a secular and Western orientation to a society based on Islamic and religious culture.”

The new non-armed wing would be called Mumahidoon -- an Arabic word “meaning those who pave the way.” Observers say that it remains to be seen whether the new organization would be similar to the Iranian Basij, which plays a key role in enforcing the regime’s social agenda.

Mr. Fadhili said the Mumahidoon’s work would only be “cultural and intellectual.” “We have certain specifications and regulations for each member to join this army, including a good reputation and good education and popularity among his neighbors and society,” he observed.

2.

LOYALISTS OF IRAQ'S SADR SIGN BLOOD OATHS TO CONTINUE FIGHTING

Agence France-Presse
August 29, 2008

http://afp.google. com/article/ ALeqM5gM8XiW7sV5 geqmUzh-bIVdGyOV uA

BAGHDAD -- Dozens of Shiite radicals scrambled on Friday to sign blood oaths to continue their fight against U.S. forces in Iraq despite an order from their leader Moqtada al-Sadr for them to lay down their arms.

Children as young as 10 were among those seen cutting their thumbs with scalpels and putting a bloodied fingerprint to a document circulated by members of the Sadr movement in the cleric's eastern Baghdad bastion of Sadr City.

All vowed to fight on, despite orders by Sadr on Thursday to his 60,000-strong Mahdi Army militia to suspend their armed operations indefinitely.

The order followed two six-month periods in which he had ordered his followers to hold their fire.

"I will follow the orders of Moqtada al-Sadr but I prefer to fight," said Adnan Habib, a 22-year-old labourer who attended Friday prayers in Sadr City.

"I want to sacrifice my soul, my family, for Sadr. I want to resist the occupier," said Habib, who was among those signing blood oaths.

Another Sadr supporter, Ali Abdel, a 19-year-old high school student, said he had been wanting to join the ranks of the Mahdi Army since the death of his mother in an attack targeting a police patrol a year ago.

"My entire family has signed to fight, including my father. If my mother was alive, she would also have signed."

When asked if he knows how to fight, Ali replied with a broad smile: "Which Iraqi does not know how to use a weapon?"

A Sadr official, who asked not to be named, said Sadrists had begun signing oaths in blood 16 days ago and would continue doing so until the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, due to start next week.

"This morning hundreds signed the pledge," the official said. "Blood is most valuable and so we want to show our loyalty to Moqtada with it."

The cleric's latest order came at a time when Washington and Baghdad are negotiating a crucial security agreement to decide the future of U.S. forces in Iraq.

"The Mahdi Army suspension will be valid indefinitely and anyone who does not follow this order will not be considered a member of this group," Sadr said in a statement issued by his office in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf.

Sadr said he wants to create a special unit of fighters who would continue the armed resistance against coalition forces, while the Mahdi Army in general would be transformed into a cultural and social organization.

Falah Hassan Shanshal, a lawmaker from the Sadr bloc in parliament, said the cleric wanted to serve society.

"The philosophy of Moqtada al-Sadr is the same as that of his father Mohammed. Like his father, he wants to serve society and build society," Shanshal told AFP.

He said the movement would organize literacy drives for young men and women although it did accept that most "young men want to resist" the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Many young Sadr loyalists told AFP they did not see any role for themselves except as fighters.

"I prefer to resist by force using arms, this is the only thing I am capable of doing," said Mohammed Mussa, a baker for the past 18 years.

The militia, created after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to fight invading American troops, became the most active and feared armed Shiite group in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, accused of operating death squads blamed for the killings of thousands.

In 2006, at the height of Iraq's communal bloodletting, a Pentagon report said the Mahdi Army was the greatest threat to the country's security, even greater than Al-Qaeda.

Sadr ordered a six-month freeze of Mahdi Army activities in August last year after allegations his fighters had been involved in clashes with security forces in the shrine city of Karbala.

He extended the freeze for a further six months in February and on Thursday ordered an indefinite suspension of the militia's activities.

Sadr led two uprisings against U.S.-led forces in 2004 and had repeatedly vowed to fight on until U.S. troops leave Iraq.

3.

U.S. SEES IRAQ MILITIAS DROPPING ARMS BUT IRAN ROLE UNCLEAR
By Missy Ryan

Reuters
August 29, 2008

http://www.iht. com/articles/ reuters/2008/ 08/29/africa/ OUKWD-UK- IRAQ-MEHDI. php

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's once formidable Mahdi Army appears to be bowing to orders to lay down arms, but it is yet unclear if Shi'ite fighters are preparing another offensive with Iranian help, a U.S. intelligence official said.

The militia, once accused of fuelling civil strife that drove Iraq to the brink of sectarian war, had fought bloody battles with U.S. and Iraqi government forces before a ceasefire last year and a government crackdown earlier this year.

"The Mahdi Army was meant to protect the Shi'ite community and to provide basic needs for Shi'ites," a senior intelligence analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday.

"There's no need (for Mahdi Army) to protect Shi'ites if the government is protecting them," the analyst told Reuters in an interview a day after its leader, Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, extended indefinitely a ceasefire for his militiamen.

The militia is now "hopefully transitioning into an unarmed organization. "

It was Sadr's latest move to constrain the militia, which has held much of Iraq in its grip since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Sadr's extension of the ceasefire, originally declared in August 2007, follows an order for most of his followers to embrace a non-violent struggle to fend off Western domination and to help fellow members of Iraq's Shi'ite majority.

Questions remain, though, about the extent to which Sadr, believed to be holed up in the Iranian city of Qom completing his religious studies, wields control over the militia.

ROGUE FIGHTERS

Violence dropped sharply in one-time Mahdi strongholds after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's offensive against the militants this spring, as has violence across Iraq in the last year.

But U.S. officials have also warned that some militiamen have fled to Iran -- especially members of 'special groups', rogue Mahdi fighters who the United States alleges are funded, equipped, and trained by Iran -- and could easily return.

Attacks attributable to special groups have ebbed, the analyst said, and none were recorded in July or August of this year. Iran vehemently denies a role in Iraqi bloodshed.

Yet the analyst stopped short of saying Iran had dropped its alleged support for Iraqi militia. "We are keeping an eye on Iran's intentions," she said.

The cautious assessment is in sharp contrast to a year ago, when U.S. officials squarely blamed Iran for the special groups' sophisticated weaponry and deadly tactics.

Today, the Mahdi threat is seen as more quotidian. "Our biggest threat now would be those disobedient members, Sadrists or Shi'ites who have access to arms . . . criminals," she said.

The United States is hoping that improving security and greater access to electricity, water, and jobs will make it harder for returning militants to find support.

As the United States describes a turn for the better among Shi'ite militants, it is also seeking to extirpate Sunni militants entrenched in rural areas of Iraq.

Iraqi and U.S. forces have been combing the north-eastern province of Diyala in recent weeks in search of Sunni Arab al Qaeda members, detaining hundreds of suspects and clearing bombs from roads and homes.

They believe al Qaeda is now dug in across the countryside after it was driven out of Baghdad and other cities.

(Editing by Sami Aboudi)

4.

NAJAF -- CITY'S PATH TO GOLDEN FUTURE
By Hamza Hendawi and Qassim Abdul-Zahra

Associated Press
August 29, 2008

http://ap.google. com/article/ ALeqM5gQCe36UkmV u23YNp5iWqTPp5x9 UQD92QQBH80

NAJAF -- The city's first airport is weeks away from opening, but already a bigger one is talked about. Land prices are soaring. Merchants say they don't remember business ever being so good.

Four years ago, Najaf was an urban battlefield, with U.S. troops fighting Shiite militiamen loyal to the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Today, the Shiite holy city is a hot spot of a different kind, thanks to improved security, a free-for-all market economy -- and a direct link to the Shiite-led government.

Najaf may become the key to the ambitions for wider autonomy of the most powerful Shiite party -- with far-reaching implications for Iraq.

The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council hopes to maintain its domination of Najaf's local government in provincial elections expected by early 2009. But its broader goal is a self-governing region in Iraq's Shiite south -- with its oil wealth and important religious shrines.

Shiite rivals oppose such a move, fearing it would cement the Supreme Council's sway over Shiite affairs. Sunni groups, meanwhile, argue that a Shiite autonomous region would fall under Iranian influence and lead to the break-up of Iraq.

"We already are making every effort to win Najaf," said Ridha Jawad Taqi, a Supreme Council MP. "We may well make it the capital of a future region."

It's already getting a major facelift -- even as plans to build new commercial towers and hotels in Baghdad remain little more than blueprints.

But in Najaf, the rumblings are real. Construction teams race to keep pace with millions of Shiite pilgrims who visit the shrine of the revered Imam Ali or bury their dead in the massive Valley of Peace cemetery.

Ahmed Redha, head of the state Investment Authority in Baghdad, estimated that £19 billion in projects are on the drawing board for Najaf and many will be undertaken by private companies. The plans call for luxury hotels and more than 200,000 housing units, he said.

It's all a far cry from 2004. Then, the city's cemetery and old quarter were front lines between U.S. forces and Sadr's Mahdi Army militia until the Shiite clergy mediated.

A dramatic improvement in security has persuaded more Iraqis -- as well as Shiites from abroad -- to travel to Najaf.

Police patrols and checkpoints fill the city, but local authorities say they plan to greatly reduce the number of security forces on the streets by installing security cameras around the shrine and other busy parts.

The locals are happy to see foreign visitors returning, particularly Arabs from the Persian Gulf. "Everyone is doing good business," gold jeweller Aitan Abdul-Hussein said after he served two Iraqi women in his shop. "I sell a kilogram of gold every day. That used to be my monthly average a year ago."

The £27 million airport is giving everyone hope that even better days are ahead. A ceremonial opening took place in July and the anticipation of commercial flights has pushed land prices up by as much as 60 per cent, according to the airport's manager Karim al-Abdali.

The boom is strengthening ties between the Supreme Council -- Sadr's main rival -- and Najaf's merchant class, which takes pride in the city's famous entrepreneurial spirit. It is that spirit, say residents, that has cost Sadr support in 2004 when his militiamen controlled Najaf, driving visitors away and forcing businesses to shut down.

Al-Sadr still enjoys some support in Najaf, but his mix of street politics and violence is deemed by many as bad for the city's economic well being.

Najaf residents appear happy over the jobs and money that have flowed into their city. But some complain that local authorities have much to learn.

For example, no-bid contracts are awarded to local companies with little expertise or resources, while foreign companies remain reluctant to come to Iraq, fearing for the safety of their workers.

"We are still very new in this," said al-Abdali, the airport's director. "In our rush to develop the country we are making mistakes."

The rush to modernize the city is also bringing worries about blows to Najaf's character as the world's oldest seat of Shiite learning and home to the sect's top clerics.

"We stand for preservation and modernization going hand in hand," said Hassan al-Hakim, who lectures on Islamic history in the nearby Kufa university and heads a local foundation to protect the city's heritage.

"There is a danger that expanding the Imam Ali shrine and building more hotels could mean demolishing parts of the old city," he warned in an interview at his Najaf home.

Sheik Ali Bashir al-Najafi, son and top aide of one of Najaf's four top clerics, says the powerful religious Shiite establishment in the city has its own vision for development in Najaf.

"We support the development of the city in the best possible way," he said. "But we want the work done in a way that respects the spirit of a city that hosts Imam Ali."

Hazem al-Haidari, a key member of Najaf's provincial council, sought to allay fears over the loss of the city's identity.

He said plans under consideration for the old quarter would strive to create a balance between modernity and history. "There will be no giving up of the old town's heritage and landmarks," he said.

But he noted that parts of the old cemetery may have to be removed to make way for new roads.