Region | Iraq
Shiite neighbourhoods 'most troubled in Baghdad'
Operations against Mahdi Army in Iraq making Shiite areas most troubled in Bahdad, Iraqi officer tells Gulf News.
- By Basil Adas, Correspondent
- Published: 01:00 April 11, 2008
- A young girl reacts while looking at the rubble of a house that was destroyed in an air strike in Basra on Friday.
- Image Credit: AP
Baghdad: After nearly four years of Sunni neighbourhoods facing unsettled security situations, the situation has changed. Now it is the Shiite neighbourhoods that are the most troubled areas in Baghdad.
The atmosphere has become tense and the areas are being targeted by Iraqi and American forces, Iraqi citizens and military officers said.
"Due to the ongoing operations of disarming the Mahdi Army, Shiite neighbourhoods in Baghdad such as Al Sadr, Shula'a, Sha'ab and Al Kadhumiya have become the most troubled areas and have been placed at the forefront of military plans aimed at strengthening the security situation in the city", Jawad Al Jibouri, an Iraqi Army officer, told Gulf News.
In the past few days, the military operations commander in Baghdad has decided to withdraw some troops from Sunni neighbourhoods in Karkh and transfer them to the Rusafa section of the Iraqi capital, military sources told Gulf News.
The move, noted observers, aimed to support military operations in Al Sadr City against the Mahdi Army and is described as an indication of the improved security situation in Sunni neighbourhoods which were controlled by Al Qaida.
"Two weeks ago we used to receive Sunni gunmen's corpses but now we are receiving the bodies of Shiite gunmen in Baghdad morgues", Qasim Al Souari, a Baghdad Medical City employee said in a statement to Gulf News.
A report issued by the army headquarters in Baghdad said the ongoing events against the Mahdi Army showed that while imposing the military plan a year ago a grave mistake was made by focusing on fighting Al Qaida gunmen. This allowed Shiite gunmen to maintain their influence in Shiite neighbourhoods and boost it. The report stated that the Mahdi Army was the first beneficiary of the plan because it weakened Al Qaida in Baghdad, thus the Mahdi Army became the strongest armed force along with the Iraqi army affiliated to the government.
"Clashes in the Shiite Al Sadr neighbourhood against the Mahdi Army were fiercer than confrontations which occurred in Sunni neighbourhoods against Al Qaida gunmen," Haleem Al Athath, an officer at the Iraqi Interior Ministry told Gulf News.
"The number and quality of weapons possessed by the Mahdi Army excel the weapons of Al Qaida."
Over the past five years, most Iraqi and US forces' detainees were Sunni Arabs, but today most of those who are held are Shiites, Iraqi sources added.
"More than 80 per cent of detention operations are against Shiite activists and this reflects the fact that most security operations are against Shiite extremists", Taha Al Hayani, an employee at the information and investigations agency of the Iraqi Interior Ministry, added.
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