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Iraqi Shiâites renew call for militias
Rifle-toting Shiite Muslim militiamen, some in crisp uniforms and others in civilian attire, deployed in force Wednesday around a bomb-scarred shrine in Baghdad, setting up dozens of checkpoints on bustling streets devoid of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police officers.The militiamen, loyal to various Shiite political parties, joined a contingent of armed guards from the Imam Kadhim mausoleum in asserting control over the neighborhood surrounding the gold-domed shrine, which was attacked by three suicide bombers on Tuesday morning as tens of thousands of Shiites gathered to commemorate a religious holiday. The attack on the mausoleum and simultaneous blasts in the holy city of Karbala have intensified Shiite demands to retain militias affiliated with political parties and other unofficial armies. Shiite leaders insist their own security forces, not the Iraqi police or American troops, are their best defense against terrorist attacks. In Washington, the commander of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf blamed Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian allegedly tied to al Qaeda, for the attacks. Army Gen. John Abizaid, who heads U.S. Central Command, said at a congressional hearing that plans for "even greater carnage" were thwarted as a result of raids Monday by U.S. Special Operations forces against "Zarqawi network operatives." The operatives, Abizaid said, had been plotting to set off car bombs in Baghdad and Karbala. Shiite leaders said Tuesdayâs attacks should force an immediate change in U.S. security policy. "These attacks make it very clear that we need to take a different approach to security," said Adel Abdel-Mehdi, the Supreme Councilâs political director. "We know the security issue better than they know it." "We donât want the police or the military," said Mohammed Hussein, a burly, gun-wielding member of the Badr Brigades. "We donât trust them. We prefer to handle the security here." Many angry Shiites blamed Sunni Muslim radicals for the blasts. But Shiite political leaders urged people not to be goaded into a civil war. "This crime in Karbala has nothing to do with the Sunnis," insisted Muhammed Bahr Uloum, a Shiite cleric and the current president of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council. "There is no Sunni who would do that." Mowaffak Rubaie, another Shiite member of the council, accused former members of Husseinâs Baath Party government and foreign terrorists of perpetrating the attack and said, "Weâre nowhere near a civil war in this country." Shiite religious leaders, seeking to deflect blame from Sunnis, issued statements faulting U.S. forces for not doing more to combat terrorism. "We lay on the occupying coalition the responsibility of lawlessness throughout Iraq," Grand Ayatollah Bashir Najafi, a top Shiite cleric, said in a decree. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-03-04 |
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