IRAQ:Some fear the US is encouraging the Maliki government to adhere to an ethno-sectarian approach, writes Michael Jansen
THE OPERATION in Basra and Baghdad by Iraqi and US forces against Shia militias has political as well as military objectives. Although the government of Nuri al-Maliki pledged two years ago to disarm and disband militias, it has refrained from doing so in a systematic way until now.
Instead, the Iraqi police and army inducted officers and men of the Badr Corps militia, the military wing of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), which partners the Kurds and Maliki's Dawa party in the coalition. As members of the national armed services, the Badrists have received training, arms and funding from both the government and the US, in preparation for inevitable Shia-upon-Shia turf wars.
The main rival of the Iranian-supported SIIC and the Iranian-formed, funded, and trained Badr Corps has always been the populist movement headed by radical Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi army militia has 60,000 fighters. The Sadrists, the largest parliamentary faction, are considered a serious threat by the US and the SIIC because they are nationalists who oppose the US occupation and Iranian influence in Iraq.
Once the Iraqi parliament passed legislation providing for local elections in October, the SIIC/Dawa government was obliged to take action against the Sadrists who were expected to win control of Iraq's southern oil-rich provinces, their cities and Basra.
Sadrists, Sunnis and secularists boycotted the 2005 local elections and have been largely excluded from office at local and provincial levels, although the Sadrists enjoy power due to the Mahdi army. The Sadrists are furious about the offensive, because the ceasefire they have observed has contributed to the 60 per cent reduction in violence during recent months.
The other targets of the operation are the Fadhila party, a dissident Sadrist group; small Iran-sponsored militias; and criminal gangs involved in racketeering, kidnapping and murder.
Fadhila controls the trade unions in Basra port and is deeply involved in the smuggling of oil, which accounts for at least one-third of Iraq's total exports.
Badrists, Sadrists and criminal gangs also engage in smuggling.
By backing the SIIC/Dawa alliance, the US is not only promoting the prospects of Iran's clients in the coming election but also, its critics say, encouraging the Maliki government to adhere to its ethno-sectarian policy of excluding Sunnis, Sadrists, secularists, Christians, Turkomen and others from governance, thereby blocking national reconciliation.