Concerned Iraqi citizens shoot straight
By Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail
BAQUBA - New military operations in Diyala province north of Baghdad have
exacerbated a growing conflict between US-backed Sunni fighters and Iraqi
forces.
The US military commenced a large military operation January 8 in the volatile
Diyala province. Seven US battalions led an offensive to push out fighters
affiliated with "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia" from the area.
In the current operation, US, Iraqi and local fighters have faced no serious
resistance. US military commanders admitted shortly
after operations began that anti-occupation fighters were likely tipped off,
and fled the area. But the operation has thrown up conflicts within the ranks.
"The military forces comprise the coalition forces, Iraqi police and army, and
the popular forces [commonly called Kataib]," political analyst Akram
Sabri told Inter Press Service in Baquba, capital of Diyala province. "It was
found that the local forces are more truculent fighters who can always be
relied on. This has made the coalition forces increasingly reliant upon these
fighters to the extent that they will one day likely be joined to Iraqi police
and army."
The Kataib that Sabri speaks of are what the US military calls
"concerned local citizens". Most are former resistance fighters, now being paid
US$300 a month to stop attacking occupation forces and to back them instead.
The groups, which the US military claims are 82% Sunni, are viewed as a threat
by the government in Baghdad led by US-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki. The premier has said these groups will never become part of
government security forces. But while viewed with suspicion at many places,
these forces are also being welcomed in others.
Residents of Baquba, 40km northeast of Baghdad, say the Kataib have
brought a decrease in violence, and now enjoy a respect that the Iraqi army and
police never had.
"The new prestige that Kataib enjoy has enraged the Iraqi police and army," an
officer in the directorate-general of police, speaking on condition of
anonymity, told IPS. "In one operation in a village near Khalis city 15
kilometers west of Baquba, the directorate-general of police contributed just
20 men, while the Kataib fighters numbered 450. This shows how the Americans
now rely more on the Kataib than on us."
Adding to the growing rift between the US-backed fighters and government
security forces is the increasing disgust with the mostly Shi'ite-backed
government in Baghdad.
"The coalition forces have to correct what they have done in bringing in such a
sectarian government," a Baquba resident said. "The existence of militants is
the result of the bad performance of the government and the ruling council of
Diyala in particular. Enemies are created by injustice and unfairness.
Everything has been affected by the lack of security, and the only reason
behind that is the occupation and its feeble government," the resident said.
Residents remain leery of travelling outside of Baquba. Armed groups, often
with unknown allegiance, control the roads.
Hded district, 10km south of Baquba, is situated on the road to Baghdad. "The
violence here has prevented people freely using the highway," 43-year-old bus
driver Muhsin Muhamed Kareem told IPS. Government forces have failed to provide
security, he said.
Muqdadiya area, about 30km north of Baquba, has become a danger spot on the
road to Sulaimaniya province in the Kurdish north. Many want to travel there
for business because Kurdish areas have better security, but militiamen from
the Shi'ite Mahdi Army often target Sunni travellers around Muqdadiya.
"The military operations which started two months ago cleared out the militants
but did not control the militia because they are the police and army," a
Muqdadiya resident said.
"A policeman at an official checkpoint in Muqdadiya asked a person, who was
sitting beside me in my van, what his sect was," a frequent traveller on the
route said. 'Passengers know that the police behavior is sectarian."”
A resident of Aswad village, eight kilometers west of Baquba, told IPS that
people have reason to support the US-backed Sunni fighters rather than the
government forces. "The Iraqi army is hard-hearted with the people because they
think that all the villagers are terrorists. People feel safer with the other
forces."
Ali al-Fadhily, IPS's correspondent in Iraq's Diyala province, works in
close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, IPS's US-based specialist writer
on Iraq who has reported extensively from Iraq and the Middle East.
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