Al-Maliki is failing to reign in militias and US policy-makers are low on patience, writes Firas Al-Atraqchi The US military's much vaunted security scheme in Baghdad has now birthed a sequel. But Operation Forward Together II, billed as the second phase of an effort to stabilise and secure the capital, is already as dead as its predecessor. Phase I employed 50,000 US and Iraqi troops with the second phase expected to draw on an additional 3,700 US troops promised by President George W Bush when Iraqi Prime Minister Nour Al-Maliki visited Washington last month. US military commanders expect to finalise their security operations and bring law and order to the capital by the middle of September, shortly before the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Nevertheless devastating attacks on the civilian population and infrastructure have not abated, instead showing a new ferocity in quickly stamping out any hope that some semblance of security would return to the city. And the volume of attacks and civilian toll indicate that not only is Iraq leagues away from being called a fledgling democracy but has became an anarchic state hosting multiple killing fields. On Sunday, mortar fire and a car bomb killed some 57 people and wounded a further 140 in the south Baghdad district of Zafaraniyah. A four-storey building and an overpass bridge collapsed crushing many. While a US military investigative team said that the Zafaraniyah toll was due to a gas main explosion, Iraqi officials insisted that mortars had been fired from the mixed district of Dora. Ironically it was in Dora that the US military announced a success of sorts a few days earlier. On 10 August, US Colonel Michael Beech, commander of the fourth Brigade Combat team told the media that his troops had sealed off and secured Dora and searched thousands of homes. Beech said the three- day operation netted several terrorist suspects and lowered the sectarian murder rate from 20 a day to zero. "There is no place safer in Baghdad right now," he said. If Iraqi officials commenting on the Zafaraniyah incident are to be believed, Dora is not as secure as some would hope. Neither is the rest of Iraq. While US forces, and the media in quick pursuit, focus on Baghdad, Mosul continues to fall into the hands of armed groups. In the past week, more than 47 people have been killed due to explosions and attacks on Iraqi police convoys and US armoured vehicles in Mosul. Senior officials in the local administration of the northern city have also come under repeated assassination attempts. In Tikrit last week, a suicide bomber struck a funeral ceremony for the father of provincial council member Saab Abd Badaywi. Fifteen were killed. A total of 131 others were killed in reported attacks in Dhi Qar, Falluja, Miqdadiya, Kirkuk, Ramadi, Baquba, Amara, Tal Afar, and Basra, to name a few. Kurdish sources have also said that Turkish artillery fired a barrage on Iraqi border towns Monday in an effort to rout out outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters. Relentless violence in Iraq is being matched by serious political rifts emerging between US command and the Shia-led Iraqi government. While the military, supported by White House officials, continues to stress that Iraq's security is dependent on a strong and viable Iraqi national army, Shia members of parliament are calling for decentralisation of the armed forces. MP Hadi Al-Amiri, who also heads a Shia militia associated with the leading Shia coalition parties, urged that Iraqi neighbourhoods form protection committees to combat the threat of "militants and insurgents". In a debate that was shown on Iraqi state television, one of two official channels, Amiri lambasted the inefficacy of the national army as a deterrent to what he called "wide terrorism". Amiri's remarks came after an attack on a Shia shrine in Najaf killed more than 35 and wounded another 40. Amiri's suggested strategy was a formula for civil war, Hayder Al-Mulla, a Sunni politician, argued in the same televised debate. He said neighbourhood committees were a fancy name for the creation of more militias. The creation of even more militias would run counter to Al-Maliki's stated goal of cracking down on such groups accused of kidnapping, murder, assassinations, and sectarian violence. The key promise of the four-month-old Al-Maliki government has been to stabilise and secure the country by either disbanding or integrating militias into the existing security groups or the national military. US officials, however, are now beginning to charge that Al-Maliki has either been too slow or reluctant to take on Shia militia, many of whom form the backbone of his Daawa Party support base, while aggressively pursuing armed Sunni groups. When US forces tackle Shia militias, particularly those of junior cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, Al-Maliki is quick to use vitriol to protest US actions. Last week, Al-Maliki expressed outrage that US forces raided a Mehdi militia outpost in Sadr City -- and without his permission. There were conflicting casualty reports, but the divide between US forces and the prime minister was abundantly clear. Earlier this week, US forces also raided the Shia-led Ministry of Health and detained up to seven guards whom they accused of involvement in death squads and operating kidnapping gangs. Further proof that there seems to be a complete breakdown in US-Iraqi government cohesion came when Major General William B Caldwell told the media that Shia militia members operating in and around Baghdad were being trained in Iran. "We do know that weapons have been provided and IED [improvised explosive device] technology been made available to these extremist elements," Caldwell said. This followed charges made by US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad that Iran was prodding Shia militia to step up attacks against US forces in response to the Israeli assault on Lebanon. For the moment, US forces seem to be treading carefully when selecting targets. Although Al-Maliki promised the Iraqi people that he would aggressively pursue the disarmament of all militia and said no one but the government should maintain an armed force, the US military is being told the Mehdi militia are off-limits. The Americans are playing along. Over the past week, US military officials have characterised Al-Sadr as a man growing in power and too dangerous to take down. They say he commands a loyal following of 10,000 fully armed militia members. No one wants a repeat of the Sadrist uprising in Najaf in 2004, they say. Sadr was considered a wanted-dead-or-alive fugitive back then. Most Iraqis agree that security in the capital cannot be achieved as long as the Mehdi militia is allowed to carry weapons and police neighbourhoods at will. In the wake of the Samaraa bombings in February, the Mehdi militia were accused of attacking mosques and executing thousands of Sunnis. Many of the sectarian killings today are blamed on the Mehdi militia. Adding further turmoil to the political pot is news emerging from Iraq Tuesday that Shia and Kurdish parties are preparing to force Iraqi parliament speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani, a Sunni, to step down. The political gambit will likely further alienate the Sunni community, already calling for a revision of the constitution. The debate on dividing Iraq, meanwhile, is gaining ground. On 11 August, Education Minister Khudayr Khuzai, member of the Shia coalition, said parts of the country should be cut off to stem the tide of "terrorism". He called for a format resembling Iraqi Kurdistan's autonomous partition from the rest of Iraq.
