Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
January 4, 2008 By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Khalid Al-ansary
BAGHDAD — The leader of Iraq’s most influential Shiite party offered surprisingly conciliatory remarks on Thursday about the former insurgents and other Sunnis who have banded together into militias to work with American forces, stating that the groups had helped improve security and should be continued.
In a speech in Najaf, the Shiite holy city, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the party that has long been the backbone of the main Shiite political alliance, said a major reason for recent security improvements was not merely a dependence on official security forces but also a reliance on tribal groups and local councils.
“We still believe in continuing this strategy,” said Mr. Hakim, the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
In another development on Thursday, two American soldiers were shot dead and a third soldier was wounded in Diyala Province, the American military said. On Wednesday a soldier was killed by an improvised bomb south of Baghdad, the first death of an American soldier this year.
Mr. Hakim’s remarks on Thursday referred to Sunni groups, known as Awakening Councils, which emerged in 2006 in Sunni-dominated western Iraq, and spread to mixed Sunni-Shiite areas around Baghdad last year.
The American-backed groups, with nearly 80,000 members, are credited with routing Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other extremist militants from many areas and helping to sharply reduce American deaths. Many militia members used to attack American troops, before deciding to join forces with them.
While the rise of these groups has been the most promising development for the American military, the partnership has drawn deep skepticism from the Shiite-dominated central government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The Shiites fear the Americans have created an armed parallel force that one day could turn against the official Iraqi security forces, which are dominated by Shiites and Kurds. Last month, the government declared that it would eventually disband the groups, though it has said it would integrate some members into the official security forces.
While Mr. Hakim did not say whether the groups should be continued indefinitely, his speech appeared to soften more cautious comments he made just last month, when he warned that the Sunni groups should operate only in the most dangerous areas and should not be seen as a replacement for government forces.
Another top official in Mr. Hakim’s party, Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, said Thursday in an interview that the party still wanted tight controls on the Sunni militias.
“We support the awakening project, but on the condition that it should not be penetrated by Al Qaeda and that it should not represent just one sect, rather than representing all Iraqis,” he said.
Increasingly, the Awakening Councils are caught between Shiite reluctance to embrace and support them and heightened attacks from extremist Sunni militants. On Thursday, three Awakening Council fighters guarding a checkpoint in Hawija, a volatile town north of Baghdad, were wounded in a drive-by shooting, said Capt. Mahmoud Abdullah of the Iraqi police.
Violence throughout Baghdad and Diyala Province on Thursday underscored how tenuous the security situation remains. In Baghdad, at least three civilians were killed and seven others wounded by mortar shells. In Diyala, improvised bombs also killed two policemen near Khalis and one near Zaganiyah, an Iraqi police official said.
In Muqdadiya, in central Diyala, the American military said, troops killed seven militants in a raid on what was believed to be an operation by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown militant group that American officials say is foreign-led. The military said it had intelligence that the group had killed at least two people in the last two days.
On Thursday, the Iraqi Army ordered an indefinite ban on vehicle traffic in Diyala because of the difficult security situation there, Agence France-Presse reported.
Abeer Mohammed and Karim Hilmi contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Kirkuk and Diyala.
January 4, 2008 By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Khalid Al-ansary
BAGHDAD — The leader of Iraq’s most influential Shiite party offered surprisingly conciliatory remarks on Thursday about the former insurgents and other Sunnis who have banded together into militias to work with American forces, stating that the groups had helped improve security and should be continued.
In a speech in Najaf, the Shiite holy city, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the party that has long been the backbone of the main Shiite political alliance, said a major reason for recent security improvements was not merely a dependence on official security forces but also a reliance on tribal groups and local councils.
“We still believe in continuing this strategy,” said Mr. Hakim, the leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.
In another development on Thursday, two American soldiers were shot dead and a third soldier was wounded in Diyala Province, the American military said. On Wednesday a soldier was killed by an improvised bomb south of Baghdad, the first death of an American soldier this year.
Mr. Hakim’s remarks on Thursday referred to Sunni groups, known as Awakening Councils, which emerged in 2006 in Sunni-dominated western Iraq, and spread to mixed Sunni-Shiite areas around Baghdad last year.
The American-backed groups, with nearly 80,000 members, are credited with routing Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other extremist militants from many areas and helping to sharply reduce American deaths. Many militia members used to attack American troops, before deciding to join forces with them.
While the rise of these groups has been the most promising development for the American military, the partnership has drawn deep skepticism from the Shiite-dominated central government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. The Shiites fear the Americans have created an armed parallel force that one day could turn against the official Iraqi security forces, which are dominated by Shiites and Kurds. Last month, the government declared that it would eventually disband the groups, though it has said it would integrate some members into the official security forces.
While Mr. Hakim did not say whether the groups should be continued indefinitely, his speech appeared to soften more cautious comments he made just last month, when he warned that the Sunni groups should operate only in the most dangerous areas and should not be seen as a replacement for government forces.
Another top official in Mr. Hakim’s party, Jalal al-Din al-Sagheer, said Thursday in an interview that the party still wanted tight controls on the Sunni militias.
“We support the awakening project, but on the condition that it should not be penetrated by Al Qaeda and that it should not represent just one sect, rather than representing all Iraqis,” he said.
Increasingly, the Awakening Councils are caught between Shiite reluctance to embrace and support them and heightened attacks from extremist Sunni militants. On Thursday, three Awakening Council fighters guarding a checkpoint in Hawija, a volatile town north of Baghdad, were wounded in a drive-by shooting, said Capt. Mahmoud Abdullah of the Iraqi police.
Violence throughout Baghdad and Diyala Province on Thursday underscored how tenuous the security situation remains. In Baghdad, at least three civilians were killed and seven others wounded by mortar shells. In Diyala, improvised bombs also killed two policemen near Khalis and one near Zaganiyah, an Iraqi police official said.
In Muqdadiya, in central Diyala, the American military said, troops killed seven militants in a raid on what was believed to be an operation by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown militant group that American officials say is foreign-led. The military said it had intelligence that the group had killed at least two people in the last two days.
On Thursday, the Iraqi Army ordered an indefinite ban on vehicle traffic in Diyala because of the difficult security situation there, Agence France-Presse reported.
Abeer Mohammed and Karim Hilmi contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Kirkuk and Diyala.