Mixed emotions among
Iraqis By Aaron Glantz and Alaa
Hassan
BAGHDAD - Iraqis seem divided over
the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the
Jordanian-born leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. US and
Iraqi officials said he was killed along with
seven allies in an air raid on Wednesday night in
Baqouba, 50 kilometers northeast of Baghdad.
Fadil el-Sharra, spokesman for the Shi'ite
cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has led two armed
rebellions against the Anglo-American occupation
and regularly calls for its demise, said, "After
this the terrorism will be reduced. The terrorists
now know what their future is, and their future is
they will be killed just like Zarqawi."
Sharra said now is the time for all Iraqis
to rally behind the new government to help
establish Iraq's sovereignty. "The terrorism will
end," he predicted, "and we
will have an Iraq without dictatorship, without
problems and with stability."
But not
everyone points to such a rosy scenario.
Mathona al-Dari, spokesman for the
hardline Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars,
said, "The issue is not the capture of Zarqawi.
It's not related to one person. It's that the
occupation wants to destroy anyone that's
resisting them - armed group and political groups
alike. [This killing] is meant to hide the fact
that the occupation is not meant to help Iraqi
people."
Dari's father, Hartih al-Dari, is
imam of a mosque near Abu Ghraib prison that has
been a center of anti-American rhetoric. He once
issued a fatwa against any Iraqi helping
the US or British military, and spoke of armed
resistance as a religious duty.
The
Association of Muslim Scholars has since tempered
that rhetoric, participated in Iraqi elections and
joined the new unity government, but Mothana Dari
said he expected the fighting to continue despite
his organization's change of position.
Dari said the policies that were causing
resentment and anger against Iraqis continue -
including the incarceration of more than 15,000
Iraqis without trial in US-run prisons.
The Iraqi government announced this week
it had reached an agreement with Washington to
release about 2,500 prisoners, but Dari said that
would not be enough to bring peace.
"Their
project is to destroy the voices that are against
the occupation, whether armed or unarmed," Dari
said.
Dari also expressed concern that the
only reason Iraqi prisoners were being released
was that the US military was planning to arrest
more people - and it had run out of space. The US
military is keeping so many people at Abu Ghraib
that prisoners have to be warehoused outside in
tents on the grounds of the prison.
Indeed, the US military is preparing for a
massive assault on Ramadi, according to local
indications. About 1,500 fresh troops have been
brought to the area, which has already been
surrounded by US military checkpoints and snipers.
"We have tough days in Iraq that will try
the patience of the American people," US President
George Bush said on Thursday, indicating that
Zarqawi's death would not bring a change in US
policy.
Dari said, "I want to be hopeful,
but the facts that I see show that Iraq has no
future under the occupation. And under the current
political process there is an absence of the voice
of the nation."
