Civil War in Basra as Shia Kills Shia, Shia Attack British, 22 Dead

[Dems Will Win]

Iraqi Youth Gets Ready to Throw Stone At Fire-Bombed
British Armored Vehicle After UK Copter Is Downed By Missile

Let's all remember that George Dubai Bush did not know that there were 2 sects of Islam that feud with each other or that within those 2 sects there is strife.

As I noted before, and which has still to appear in the corporate media, the Basra Council has refused to yield their power to the central Iraqi government and the official splitting apart of the country has begun.

Government Fights Militia in Southern Iraq

by Aaron Glantz
With Salam Talib

Southern Iraq saw the biggest outbreak of government violence against Shi'ite groups this week as Iraqi government troops attacked followers of Ayatollah Mahmoud Hassani al-Sarkhi.

"The government raided the religious school of the followers of Hassani," explains Sarmad Abdul-Karem, who heads up the agency Iraq4All news. "Hassani supporters defended the school and came from every place to Karbala to try to save the school and get the government out. Ten people were killed, 30 to 40 were injured, and 200 people were detained."

Ayatollah Hassani is a conservative cleric who stands both against the American occupation and Iranian influence in the country. While the Shi'ite groups that control the Iraqi government – like the dominant Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq – receive direct support from Tehran, Hassani instigated his followers to attack the Iranian consulate in Basra in June.

This is the first time his followers have clashed with Iraqi authorities, though, and the fighting quickly spun out of control.

According to Ali, a special forces officer in Hilla, 30 miles away:

"In Hilla, his supporters came to the main checkpoint to enter Karbala from Hilla. They killed one person from the military and they took all their weapons. They came from all over – from Basra and all the South and they took all their weapons. They came from all over – from Basra and all the South until they reached Babylon. The police at the checkpoint didn't allow them to enter Karbala. … Then it got violent. Hassani ordered them to walk if the government wouldn't allow them to drive their cars. So they left their cars and walked to Karbala. And yesterday, early in the morning, they arrived in Karbala, and it was a very tense situation. The government had to declare a curfew for three days."

http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=9555

From the NY TIMES:
Iraqi and British Troops Clash With Shiite Militias
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 16 — Iraqi security forces and British troops fought Shiite militias and tribesmen in two major cities south of Baghdad on Wednesday in sustained battles that left two policemen and a dozen militiamen dead. The violence underscored the tenuous grip the Iraqi government maintains even in regions not under the sway of Sunni Arab insurgents.

...

In Basra, a gun battle erupted between Iraqi Army troops and members of the dominant local tribe, the Bani Asad, apparently angered by the killing on Tuesday of a tribal leader, Faisal Raji al-Asadi, government officials in Basra said.

In a battle that lasted the better part of an hour, tribesmen clad in black clothing fired fusillades of bullets and grenades at the provincial government building, local police and government officials said, and eventually occupied the parts of the government complex.

“The building was in the hands of Bani Asad tribe,” an Iraqi government official in Basra said in a telephone interview, speaking over the sustained crackle of gunfire in the background. He said that the fighting, which killed six, including two policemen and two tribesmen, started because the tribe believed that the government was involved in Mr. Asadi’s killing.

A prominent member of the tribe who called himself Ayatollah al-Asadi suggested in an interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday afternoon that British forces, which have struggled to maintain control of Basra in the midst of warring Shiite militias, may have been responsible for the assassination. Faisal Raji al-Asadi “contributed to throwing the British out,” he said. “Maybe they are taking revenge now.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

From WaPo:

Amit R. Paley and Saad al-Izzi
Washington Post
Aug. 19, 2006 12:00 AM


BAGHDAD - Two Shiite Muslim parties on Friday accused Iran of instigating violence in Iraq and attempting to destabilize the country, exposing a growing rift within Iraq's largest sect that many fear will exacerbate the nation's slide into full-scale civil war.

"All of this violence is because of the Shiism in Iran," Adnan Aboudi, head of the Islamic Allegiance Party, said in a telephone interview. "There are external infiltrating fingers playing now throughout the Iraqi arena." The party is the political wing of cleric Mahmoud Abdul Ridha al-Hassani, who is virulently anti-Iranian and anti-American.


...

A senior official with the Fadhila bloc, a powerful Shiite religious party that controls the oil-rich city of Basra, said Friday that "Iranian individuals are trying to depose Fadhila from the government."

...

Juan Cole, a professor of the modern Middle East at the University of Michigan, said that the recriminations toward Iran were directed at two of the largest Shiite blocs in Parliament, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Dawa Party. The Supreme Council was founded in Iran during Saddam Hussein's rule, and it and Dawa retain strong ties to Iran.

"Those groups are often coded as Iranian puppets," said Cole, author of the book Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture, and History of Shiite Islam. He said many Iraqis believe that the Supreme Council and its militia, the Badr Organization, receive substantial monetary support from Tehran. "It's obviously in the interest of Iran that parties that are friendly to it remain in power in Iraq."

Cole said the hostility among Shiite factions can be traced to the gap between wealthy members of parties tied to Iran, such as the Supreme Council and Dawa, and impoverished cadres of groups critical of Iran, such as followers of Hassani.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0819iraq-iran0819.html

And this from Indy Media:

Al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that Faruq al-Khuyun, the son of Faisal al-Khuyun (sheikh of the Bani Asad tribe who was assassinated the day before yesterday in a market in Basra) has accused the governor of Basra of having targetted his father and their tribe. He said Basra security forces had also assassinated his brother, Ghazwan al-Khuyun, just three months ago. Faruq said that his tribe's attack on the governor's offices was a minor thing, and that they would, tomorrow or thereafter, occupy those offices altogether.

I don't think the security situation in Basra looks too bright.

Southern Iraq is erupting and CNNMSNBCFOXABCNBCCBS won't talk about it because it would DOOM the chances of the Republican Party for the mid-term elections.

It's up to us to talk about it.

[Dems Will Win]

1. We need to media blast this...

[Dems Will Win]

2. kick

[eccles12]

3. Isn't all usually about the class/economic divide in civil wars? n/t