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2 Muqtada raises the stakes in
Iraq By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr
has raised the stakes in Iraq by calling on his
militia, the Mehdi Army, and Iraqi security forces
to stop fighting each other. In a statement
delivered by Muqtada from a hiding place inside
Iraq (believed to be Kufa), he said, "O army and
police of Iraq, do not follow the occupier - he is
an enemy."
Muqtada is charismatic -
certainly by Iraqi standards - and his appeal to
the men in uniform to split from the US carries much
weight, as they see him as a
resistance leader dedicated to the liberation of
Iraq.
Muqtada's call comes as the Mehdi
Army is engaged in fighting with Iraqi and US
forces in the central city of Diwaniya. The
fighting broke out on Friday after the United
States launched Operation Black Eagle aimed at
returning control of Diwaniya to the Iraqi
government. The US military says more than 60
militants have been killed or captured by the
about 3,300 US and Iraqi troops. In the past year
the town has been a battlefield for Shi'ite and
Sunni militias.
The operation is an
extension of the Baghdad security plan that has
been under way in the capital since February.
Similar battles to the one in Diwaniya took place
last October, also with the aim of wiping out the
Mehdi Army, but they, too, failed.
In
another move that illustrates how Muqtada is
emerging from a period of relative quiet (he was
even said to have fled to Iran), the cleric urged
tens of thousands of people to march to the city
of Najaf on Monday, the fourth anniversary of the
fall of Baghdad.
The protest against the
US occupation went off peacefully. Significantly,
Iraqi soldiers in uniform joined the crowd,
according to the Associated Press.
Muqtada mystery Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki should fire his public
relations team. In February, there was the
fabricated story that Muqtada had fled Iraq,
fearing the prime minister's Baghdad security
plan.
Those familiar with Iraq knew that
Muqtada would never leave - at least not to Iran -
because he was never actually targeted by Maliki.
That plan targeted Sunni militias, not Muqtada.
The two men are sleeping in the same bed and
support each other for mutual gain. Maliki seeks
legitimacy from Muqtada's influence in the Shi'ite
community and Muqtada looks for access to the
upper echelons of power, immunity and a share in
government.
All talk about Muqtada fleeing
to Iran was just a ploy by the prime minister to
achieve a double objective. One would be to show
his resolve as a man who could bring order to Iraq
and make the fearless Muqtada drop to his knees
and evacuate the battleground. It also would have
shown the world that Muqtada was not working under
the US-backed Maliki's umbrella.
This was
needed to restore credibility to Maliki - and
Muqtada - who were being criticized for being two
sides to the same coin.
Now, Maliki's
office has come up with a new story, also aimed at
polishing his image. They said that while heading
for a trip to the Far East on Sunday, his plane
was prohibited from entering Iranian airspace.
Maliki had to turn around and head for Dubai in
the United Arab Emirates, and then to Japan. Why
would Iran do such a thing?
Maliki is a
member of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the
parliamentary majority whose head Abdul-Aziz
al-Hakim is Iran's No 1 man in Iraq. Although the
premier is not on the Iranian payroll (at least
not directly), he nevertheless aims at modeling
his country after the theocracy in Tehran and is
friends with its leaders.
Last September
he even paid a state visit to Iran and was
received with red-carpet treatment by President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad. The Iranians might not love
Maliki, but they certainly like him, because he is
a strong Shi'ite nationalist who strives to curb
Saudi influence in Iraqi affairs. If anything,
preventing him from entering Iranian airspace was
just another publicity stunt to show the world
that the prime minister of Iraq is not a stooge
for Iran.
Maliki would be welcomed a
million times in Iran for relentlessly championing
Iraqi Shi'ites and giving their militias the green
light to operate against Sunni militias. His
Baghdad security plan is entering its third month,
and still none of the Shi'ite militia commanders
are behind bars, nor have their arms been
confiscated.
Last week, Shi'ite shepherds
entering a Sunni area were abducted by armed
groups west of Baghdad. They had come from the
Shi'ite city of Karbala to Sunni-dominated
al-Anbar province. These abductions are in
response to the numerous death squads, all
orchestrated by Shi'ite commands, that are
persecuting Sunnis, mainly in the capital.
Political showdown The Grand
Sheikh of Cairo's al-Azhar Mosque, Mohammad Said
Tantawi, one of the highest official authorities
in Sunni Islam, sent
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