Security tops the Iraqi agenda these days, both in Baghdad and Nineveh, reports Nermeen Al-Mufti According to UN figures, Iraq now has about five million orphans, 2.5 million widows, up to 60 per cent unemployment among the young, aside from millions who have been displaced or have left the country. It also has codenames for everything, from national reconciliation initiatives to construction and development projects, as well as many codes of honour. Operation Lion's Roar, the military campaign just launched in Mosul, is now to be added to the long list of Iraq's codenames. Political alliances are also plentiful. Osama Al-Nojeifi, parliamentarian for the Iraqi List, says that a preparatory conference for nationalist forces in Baghdad is in the offing. The conference is expected to give birth to a new front that may turn into the largest block in the Iraqi parliament. The Iraqi List, the Fadila Party, and the Dialogue Front of Saleh Al-Mutallik have promised to join the new block and the Sadr Current is thinking of signing up. The new front is likely to pose a serious challenge to the current government's coalition that brings together the Alliance List with main Kurdish parties. "The groups participating in the [new] front are numerous, but it is too early to name the members," Al-Nojeifi told Al-Ahram Weekly in a telephone interview, noting that negotiations were still underway. "The aim of the front is to prepare for the elections for the councils for governorates, due on 1 October." Nadim Al-Jabiri, spokesman for the committee organising the preparatory conference, said that "several nationalist figures and groups who believe in the Iraqi nationalist project have met in order to discuss plans to deliver Iraq from its ordeal and tragedy." Ordeal and tragedy sum up the current situation in Iraq. Despite a 14-point truce agreement between the Unified Alliance Block and the Sadr Current, US planes went on bombarding Sadr City. More than 15 were killed and 20 wounded, including children, in recent fighting. The recently- concluded truce agreement calls for ending all signs of military presence, clearing the area of all landmines and home- made bombs, closing down irregular courts, upholding human rights and deploying government troops. The spokesman for the Sadr Current, Salah Al-Obeidi, told the Weekly that the truce agreement doesn't require the Mahdi Army to hand in its weapons. But Hadi Al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organisation and chairman of the parliamentary security committee, begs to disagree. "The decision to disarm the Mahdi Army and other factions in return for their participation in the political process is irreversible." He added that the disarming of the militia has become the country's top priority. "This is the only request the government is making, and we believe it to be constitutional and legal. We don't know why the Sadr current is refusing to comply. When they insist on taking up arms, this is when the government has to fight back." Defending the government's action in Sadr City, Al-Amiri said, "there was no other way. Sadr City was under the control of gunmen who took to firing rockets at the Green Zone and other high-security areas. It was impossible to allow them to continue. The military operation and the siege of Sadr City were necessary measures to ensure that weapons wouldn't be moved to other parts of Baghdad." Iraqi media reported that the Iraqi government is setting aside three football stadiums, including the Shaab Stadium, Baghdad's largest, to house the civilians fleeing Sadr City. Thousands of the three million residents of Sadr City moved out of it following clashes that left over 1,100 dead in one month. On Friday, preachers linked to the Sadr current criticised the muted reaction of Najaf's top Shia clerics to the battles in Sadr City. Sheikh Sattar Al-Battat, a prominent member of the Sadr current and the imam of a mosque in Sadr City, was particularly scathing in his criticism of the Najaf clerics, including Ayatollah Al-Sistani. "For 50 days, Sadr City has been under bombardment. Women, children, and old people were being killed by various American weapons. But Najaf was silent, as if it had nothing to say. Why this silence? Najaf is only 180 kilometres from Sadr City. Have they not heard of the bombardment? The only explanation is that you, the Najaf people, approve of the ongoing genocide in Sadr City." US and Iraqi sources say that they finished installing 80 per cent of the concrete barriers intended to separate Sadr City from the rest of Baghdad. The barriers, the government claims, will help reduce the level of violence in Baghdad. This is the same argument the government used when it cordoned Al-Adhamiyah, another neighbourhood of Baghdad, with concrete barriers two years ago. After the announcement of a truce between the government and the Sadr current, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki arrived in Mosul, 450 kilometres north of Baghdad, to lead the "final decisive battle" against Al-Qaeda, also known as Lion's Roar. The Interior Ministry has also moved its operations room to Mosul and its spokesman, Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said that all preparations for bringing order to the city have been completed. Riyad Tawfiq, chief of the Nineveh operations, declared a curfew in Mosul and its suburbs effective Friday night. The measure is partly in response to reports that car bombs have been smuggled into Mosul and surrounding areas. One day after Lion's Roar was launched, the Interior Ministry boasted that it carried out successful operations against 92 targets in Mosul. No significant clashes have been reported so far, but shock troops, most of them former members of the Badr Organisation, have already been deployed in Mosul. Not everyone is happy with the way things are taking shape in Mosul. The clan council of Mosul issued a statement saying that the city has enough former army officers and capable volunteers to stand up to any "criminal gangs" wishing to disturb its peace. Mosul, the council added, is opposed to the participation of any militiamen in security operations, even if those militiamen are dressed as government troops. Meanwhile, members of the Nineveh Governorate Council of Deputies voiced their indignation at Kurdish security services, claiming that the latter were meddling in the governorate's affairs. Deputy Al-Nejefi said that "what is taking place in Mosul constitutes a flagrant assault on human rights and constitutional freedoms by militia coming from Kurdistan." Hunein Qudu, another Nineveh parliamentarian, says that "Kurdish militia [the Peshmerga] are forcing the inhabitants in the provinces of Telkeif, Al-Hamdaniya, Talaafar, Singar, Makhmur, and Al-Sheikhan to sign applications to join Kurdistan." The Iraqi parliament is currently debating the governorate council law, which is to provide guidelines for the upcoming local elections.
