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US CLASHES WITH RULING SHI'A IN TROUBLED IRAQ
AS US FORCES CRACK DOWN ON RULING SHI'A PARTIES, AMID EVIDENCE OF SECTARIAN MASSACRES, ALLEGATIONS FLY OVER MASS KILLINGS 27 March 2006 Reports from Baghdad suggest the bodies of some 69 Iraqis were found yesterday, at several sites where sectarian clashes occurred. In one incident, it appears at least 30 people were massacred. Aides to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr cited as saying 18 killed in US-led raid; Iraqi police allege 22 civilians killed in raid on mosque. This thorniest of recent tragedies comes as the US wrestles with the problem of spreading sectarian violence among groups not affiliated with the centralized insurgency or with the government. Former US-supported PM Iyad Allawi recently declared Iraq to be in a state of civil war. The US now says sectarian militia are killing more Iraqi civilians than the Sunni-led anti-coalition insurgency. This suggests the ruling Shi'a parties could do something to bring the violence under control, and tensions have mounted between the government and the US as pressure to stave off all out civil war has increased. According to Reuters, in an effort to combat pro-Shi'a violence and insurgency, "U.S. forces arrested 41 officials from the Shi'ite-controlled Interior Ministry and freed 17 foreigners from a secret jail, government, political and U.S. sources said". The ruling party coalition been accused of setting up or at least condoning ethnic "death squads", creating secret prison camps for torture, disappearance of Sunnis and Palestinian refugees. It seems apparent from recent events that the US and the governing coalition of Shi'a political groups are not working from the same information. The Interior Ministry has been accused of running a campaign of brutality and extrajudicial detentions, and there has been no official accounting for evidence surrounding the allegations. Reuters also reports a top aide to Iraq's PM Ibrahim al-Jaafari now accuses US forces of using a "policy of aggression" against Iraqis, alleges US assault on a Baghdad mosque took innocent lives. The report continues:
Even today, it is not clear who was killed or whether they were worshippers or militants, armed or unarmed, and whether or not the shooting occurred within a mosque or not. The US military reports assisting Iraqi security forces in staging a raid on a Mehdi militia compound in the Adhamiyah area of Baghdad; al-Sadr aides allege those killed were innocents worshipping at the "al-Moustafa mosque in the Shaab neighborhood, well north of Adhamiyah", according to the Washington Post. [s]
SADDAM DECRIES TRIAL PROCESS, QUESTIONS AUTHORITY OF JUDGE, REFUSES TO ID HIMSELF At the opening of his trial, Saddam Hussein, charged with ordering the killing of 143 Shi'a —presumably opponents to his rule— in 1982, was defiant. He decried the judicial process set up to judge him as illegitimate, questioned the authority of the judge overseeing the proceedings, and refused to acknowledge his identity. [Full Story] REUTERS REPORTS 3 JOURNALISTS AMONG ABUSED IRAQIS The Reuters News Agency is reporting that 3 Iraqi journalists working for the agency were beaten and sexually abused when they were detained in January, while covering the story of a downed helicopter. The abuses occurred not at Abu Ghraib prison, but at the Volturno Forward Operating Base, near Fallujah. Reuters latest publication of the story is due to the fact that the Pentagon has not responded to requests for a review of an initial military report that found no torture had occurred (issued long before the Abu Ghraib photos had become public). [Full Story] |
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