Iraq

Op-Ed: US-trained Iraqi Special Forces aid al-Maliki's repression

Digital Journal

The US helped to train and now equips the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF). The forces are used by Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki to help him centralise power and repress opposing Sunni politicians.

Robert Tollast in The National Interest maintains that even as the US prepared to drawn down its forces “elements of ISOF were already being used as a private army by Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.”

Earlier last year, al-Maliki moved against his Sunni vice-president Tariq al-Hashimi, and laid a number of charges against him including that he directed death squads. He was eventually sentenced to death in absentia as he sought refuge in Turkey. Many think that the charges were politically motivated and the court is under the control of Maliki.

The pattern of cracking down on opposition Sunni politicians has continued, with a raid upon the home and offices of the finance minister, as reported recently in Digital Journal. Rafie al-Issawi was a prominent member of the Iraqiya political group. He claims that about 150 in total of his guards and staff had been arrested in the raid. While US authorities expressed concern about the raid, the US continues training and support for Maliki's special forces.

Robert Tollast claims that Maliki “controls ISOF through the Counterterrorism Bureau, which has proved a useful tool for crushing dissent”, and is “implicated in the intimidation, arrest and even murder of Sunni politicians and opposition figures.” The US provides Iraq with a great deal of military aid and equipment. Even a year ago, there were alarms issued about the provision of arms:

The Obama administration is moving ahead with the sale of nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military despite concerns that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is seeking to consolidate authority, create a one-party Shiite-dominated state and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government.

No doubt the US is worried about the possibility of Sunni Hussein loyalists gaining power within Iraq. However, US material support of Maliki's repression actually fuels Sunni and Al Qaeda insurgency.

Tony Dodge, an Iraqi expert at the London School of Economics said:

“Maliki is heading towards an incredibly destructive dictatorship, and it looks to me as though the Obama administration is waving him across the finishing line. Meanwhile, the most likely outcomes, which are either dictatorship or civil war, would be catastrophic because Iraq sits between Iran and Syria.”

As Tollast points out, Maliki's policies do not create security against terrorism, but rather produce recruits for their cause as more and more Sunnis see the Maliki government as illegitimate. Maliki has disenfranchised Sunnis and angered Kurds. Even Muqtada al Sadr a Shia leader has come out against Maliki and in support of those protesting his policies. Recently there have been numerous demonstrations against Maliki's government as shown on the appended video.

Iraqi Shiite Cleric Lends Support to Sunni Protest

A top anti-American Shiite cleric lent support Tuesday to Sunni protesters who have been rallying against Iraq's Shiite-dominated central government, increasing pressure on the leadership in Baghdad.

ABC News,

1 January, 2012

Hard-line religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr told reporters in the Shiite holy city of Najaf that the demonstrators have the right to protest as long as they are peaceful. He stopped short of calling for a wider uprising like those that have rippled across the region over the past two years, but warned of further unrest if demands on the street are not met.

"Beware of the Arab Spring in Iraq," the firebrand cleric said in a warning to the power-sharing government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite.

Thousands of protesters have been holding rallies in the western desert province of Anbar and other Sunni strongholds for more than a week.

The demonstrations follow the arrest of bodyguards assigned to the Sunni finance minister, Rafia al-Issawi, though they tap into deeper Sunni grievances of perceived discrimination by al-Maliki's government. The protesters' demands include guarantees of better government services and release of prisoners in Iraqi jails.

Al-Sadr has a complex relationship with Baghdad and with Iraqi blocs outside his conservative Shiite power base.

He grudgingly backed longtime rival al-Maliki following elections in 2010, then last year joined Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds in calling for al-Maliki to resign. Al-Sadr's loyalists hold 40 seats in parliament and retain control of several government ministries.

He said Tuesday that al-Maliki "bears full responsibility" for the discontent among Iraqis calling for change.

Still, the cleric's backing is not unequivocal. He expressed hope that protesters would not advocate a return to dictatorship or pursue a sectarian agenda.

Iraq's majority Shiites, including al-Sadr and al-Maliki, rose to political prominence following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.

"As long as the demonstrations are peaceful and don't seek to dismantle Iraq ... we are with the protests, and parliament should be with them, not against them," he said. "The demands of demonstrators are legitimate and popular, so they should be met."

The staying power and level of anger among the Anbar protesters in particular appears to have caught Iraqi leaders off guard.

At least two people were wounded on Sunday when bodyguards and security forces protecting a senior Sunni politician opened fire to disperse protesters, marking the first casualties since the demonstrations began. The politician, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, blamed the incident on "rogue elements" within the crowd.

The unrest comes as Iraq struggles to maintain its security and stability a year after the last U.S. combat troops left.

British monitoring group Iraq Body Count said in its annual report Tuesday that it recorded 4,471 civilian deaths from violence in Iraq during 2012, up from 4,136 in 2011. The non-governmental organization has consistently attempted to record Iraqi civilian casualties since the invasion in March 2003.

A wave of attacks that primarily targeted Iraqi Shiites and the ethnically disputed city of Kirkuk killed at least 26 people on Monday.

Iraqi civilian deaths rise in "low-level war": study

A total of 4,471 civilians died in Iraq's festering "low-level war" with insurgents in 2012, the first annual climb in the death toll in three years, campaigners said on Tuesday.

News Daily,

1 January, 2013

The deaths, up from 4,059 in 2011, showed militant fighters were still bent on carrying out large-scale bomb attacks, said rights group Iraq Body Count (IBC) in its annual report.

Tensions between Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions in Iraq's power-sharing government have been on the rise this year and the civil war in neighboring Syria is whipping up sectarian tension across the region.

Insurgents pose a potent threat even though violence has fallen sharply since the height of inter communal slaughter that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled former President Saddam Hussein.

There has been at least one large bombing a month this year, usually targeting security forces, government offices or Shi'ite Muslims. The bloodiest day of 2012 was September 9, when more than 100 people were killed in series of bomb blasts.

"2012 marks the first year since 2009 where the death toll for the year has increased," IBC said in a statement.

"In sum the latest evidence suggests that the country remains in a state of low-level war little changed since early 2009, with a 'background' level of everyday armed violence punctuated by occasional larger-scale attacks designed to kill many people at once," it added.

A year after U.S. troops left, sectarian friction, as well as tension over land and oil between Arabs and ethnic Kurds, threaten renewed unrest and are hampering efforts to repair the damage of years of violence and exploit Iraq's energy riches.

In December, figures released by government showed 208 Iraqis were killed, including 55 policemen and 28 soldiers.

IBC said it has now recorded between 110,937 and 121,227 civilian deaths in violent incidents since the 2003 invasion.