Inside Baghdad’s Shia slum of Sadr City: ‘We can deal with Isis ourselves’
The streets of Baghdad were brought to a standstill by the Mahdi Army – the vast Shia militia, that is effectively a parallel military force in Iraq
The parade stretched for several miles through the streets of Baghdad, bristling with bazookas, hi-tech assault rifles and artillery guns.
As tens of thousands of uniformed men marched past, loudspeakers proclaimed how they would defend Iraq from the Sunni jihadists rampaging through the country’s north.
This pageant of armed might, however, was not an official Iraqi army display to re-assure an anxious public. Instead, it was a show of force by the Mahdi Army, the vast Shia militia that is effectively a parallel military force in Iraq.
Formed as a resistance group after Saddam Hussein’s fall, its fighters were once notorious for killing British troops through improvised roadside bombs – some of which were proudly brandished on the parade.
But despite the departure of their British and American enemies several years ago, the Baghdad government has never disarmed them, and today they continue to exist as the private muscle of Iraq’s hardline Shias.
Hardened in battle against Britain and America, the militiamen are widely seen to have more stomach for fighting than Iraq’s regular soldiers, many of whom fled the recent onslaught from the Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams (Isis). Already, the government has roped in the help of Mahdi Army forces north of Baghdad, where they are credited with helping to halt the Isis advance. Yet the more the militia is used, the greater the chances of Iraq plunging back into civil war again.
Many of the men attending Saturday’s march, which was held in Sadr City, a vast Shia slum district in east Baghdad, were veterans of the insurgency against Britain and the US.
They made it clear they did not back the Iraqi government’s request for American help, which they saw as the prelude to a second occupation.
“If the Americans are thinking about coming back here, all of we Iraqis will become time bombs – we will eat them alive,” said Adel Jabr Albawi. “We can deal with Isis ourselves.”
Saturday’s march was a potent demonstration of the huge manpower that the Mahdi Army can still muster. Watching the parade from a fixed point on the route, The Telegraph counted around 1,000 men marching past in the space of just five minutes – and the parade lasted around two hours. While the organisers’ claim of a million men seemed unlikely, a ballpark figure of at least 30-50,000 seemed feasible.
The display also showed how the Mahdi Army has turned from a ragtag force of men dressed in T-shirts and tracksuits into a disciplined and professional militia.
Most of the units in the parade wore their own army fatigues and marched in neat formations, clutching assault rifles, sniper weapons and belt-fed machine guns. Others manned trucks mounted with home-made rocket launchers and artillery weapons. As well as men in uniform, there were volunteers from the Shia tribes of Iraq’s rural hinterland, some of whom rode horses and clutched ancient muskets. Many carried flags showing Moqtadr al-Sadr, the hardline Shia cleric who formed the Mahdi army back in 2003.
One column of troops brandished a series of different roadside bombs, including the Iranian “EFP” or explosively-formed projectile, an Iranian-made weapon used to devastating effect against coalition forces. The cylindrical device would fire a bolt of molten metal that could penetrate most British and American armoured vehicles, and proved to be one of the most effective insurgent weapons.
Despite the display of military might, those attending the parade were keen to stress that the Mahdi army wanted to avoid a return to the civil war of 2006-7, when its fighters engaged in vicious street battles with al-Qaeda backed Sunni guerrillas.
Officially, the units were mobilising under the name of “peace brigades”, formed only to protect Shia mosques and neighbourhoods from attack by Isis. Their commanders also claim that they are operating purely under government command.
“The Iraqi Army has their chain of orders and we operate within those, it would be chaos otherwise,” said Hakim al Zamili, a Sadr City MP who turned up at the parade in military fatigues.
However, the prospect of the Mahdi army getting directly involved against the Sunni militants of Isis does carry the risk of the conflict spiralling out of government control. With both sides accused of atrocities against each other during the 2006-7 civil war, the fear is that the “peace brigades” may not be peaceful for much longer.
The fighting erupted on Friday evening between Isis and the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandiyah Order (JRTN) in Hawija, in Kirkuk province, sources told AFP.
There were differing accounts as to what sparked the firefight, which is a potential sign of the fraying of the Sunni insurgent alliance that has overrun vast stretches of territory north of Baghdad in less than two weeks.
One security official said JRTN fighters had refused an Isis demand to give up their weapons and pledge allegiance to the jihadist force.
Witnesses, however, told AFP the two sides clashed over who would take over multiple fuel tankers in the area.
Analysts have noted that while the Sunni insurgents, who are led by Isis but also include a litany of other groups including loyalists of now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein, have formed a wide alliance, it is unclear if the broader grouping can hold together given their disparate ideologies.
Isis espouses an extremist interpretation of Islam and wants to establish an Islamic state, whereas other armed groups have political differences with the regime in Baghdad, suggesting the alliance could eventually break down.
The officials said Saturday that Isis and allied militants seized the crossing near the border town of Qaim, about 200 miles west of Baghdad, after battling Iraqi troops throughout the previous day.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.
The capture of the Qaim border crossing deals a further blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, which has struggled to push back against Islamic extremists and allied militants who have seized large swaths of the country, including the second largest city Mosul, and who have vowed to march on Baghdad.
Sunni militants have carved out a large swath of territory astride the Iraqi-Syrian border and seized Iraq’s second largest city Mosul earlier this month.
Militants have long traveled back and forth across the porous border, but the control of crossings allows them to more easily move weapons and heavy equipment to different battlefields.
It is up to Iraq’s people and leaders to resolve those differences, said Obama.
“Some of the forces that have always possibly pulled Iraq apart are stronger now, [and] those forces that could keep the country united are weaker,” he told NBC Nightly News. “It is ultimately going to be up to the Iraqi leadership to try to pull the politics of the country back together again.”
Mr Obama is sending up to 300 US military advisers to Iraq and has threatened air strikes as Sunni Islamists have gained control of the north of the country and made a push toward Baghdad. Growing mistrust between Shia and Sunni Muslims has heightened tensions in the country, where the United States fought a war from 2003 to 2011, the president said.
Iraq’s prime minister Maliki faces mounting pressure to form an inclusive government or step aside, after a top Shiite cleric also strongly hinted he is in part to blame for the worst crisis since US troops withdrew from the country at the end of 2011.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most respected voice for Iraq’s Shiite majority, on Friday joined calls for al-Maliki to reach out to the Kurdish and Sunni minorities.
Al-Sistani normally stays above the political fray, and his comments, delivered through a representative, could ultimately seal al-Maliki’s fate.
Calling for a dialogue between the political coalitions that won seats in the April 30 parliamentary election, al-Sistani said it was imperative that they form “an effective government that enjoys broad national support, avoids past mistakes and opens new horizons toward a better future for all Iraqis.”
Al-Sistani is deeply revered by Iraq’s majority Shiites, and his critical words could force al-Maliki, who emerged from relative obscurity in 2006 to lead the country, to step down.
Mahdi Marches in Baghdad
The streets of Baghdad were brought to a standstill by the Mahdi Army – the vast Shia militia, that is effectively a parallel military force in Iraq
By Colin Freeman, Sadr City, and agencies
The parade stretched for several miles through the streets of Baghdad, bristling with bazookas, hi-tech assault rifles and artillery guns.
As tens of thousands of uniformed men marched past, loudspeakers proclaimed how they would defend Iraq from the Sunni jihadists rampaging through the country’s north.
This pageant of armed might, however, was not an official Iraqi army display to re-assure an anxious public. Instead, it was a show of force by the Mahdi Army, the vast Shia militia that is effectively a parallel military force in Iraq.
Mehdi Army fighters loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr march during a parade in Baghdad’s Sadr city (Reuters)
Formed as a resistance group after Saddam Hussein’s fall, its fighters were once notorious for killing British troops through improvised roadside bombs – some of which were proudly brandished on the parade.
But despite the departure of their British and American enemies several years ago, the Baghdad government has never disarmed them, and today they continue to exist as the private muscle of Iraq’s hardline Shias.
Hardened in battle against Britain and America, the militiamen are widely seen to have more stomach for fighting than Iraq’s regular soldiers, many of whom fled the recent onslaught from the Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams (Isis). Already, the government has roped in the help of Mahdi Army forces north of Baghdad, where they are credited with helping to halt the Isis advance. Yet the more the militia is used, the greater the chances of Iraq plunging back into civil war again.
Many of the men attending Saturday’s march, which was held in Sadr City, a vast Shia slum district in east Baghdad, were veterans of the insurgency against Britain and the US.
Armed Shiite militiamen, followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, parade in the northern oil rich province of Kirkuk, Iraq (Hussein Malla/ AP)
They made it clear they did not back the Iraqi government’s request for American help, which they saw as the prelude to a second occupation.
“If the Americans are thinking about coming back here, all of we Iraqis will become time bombs – we will eat them alive,” said Adel Jabr Albawi. “We can deal with Isis ourselves.”
Saturday’s march was a potent demonstration of the huge manpower that the Mahdi Army can still muster. Watching the parade from a fixed point on the route, The Telegraph counted around 1,000 men marching past in the space of just five minutes – and the parade lasted around two hours. While the organisers’ claim of a million men seemed unlikely, a ballpark figure of at least 30-50,000 seemed feasible.
The display also showed how the Mahdi Army has turned from a ragtag force of men dressed in T-shirts and tracksuits into a disciplined and professional militia.
Most of the units in the parade wore their own army fatigues and marched in neat formations, clutching assault rifles, sniper weapons and belt-fed machine guns. Others manned trucks mounted with home-made rocket launchers and artillery weapons. As well as men in uniform, there were volunteers from the Shia tribes of Iraq’s rural hinterland, some of whom rode horses and clutched ancient muskets. Many carried flags showing Moqtadr al-Sadr, the hardline Shia cleric who formed the Mahdi army back in 2003.
One column of troops brandished a series of different roadside bombs, including the Iranian “EFP” or explosively-formed projectile, an Iranian-made weapon used to devastating effect against coalition forces. The cylindrical device would fire a bolt of molten metal that could penetrate most British and American armoured vehicles, and proved to be one of the most effective insurgent weapons.
Despite the display of military might, those attending the parade were keen to stress that the Mahdi army wanted to avoid a return to the civil war of 2006-7, when its fighters engaged in vicious street battles with al-Qaeda backed Sunni guerrillas.
Officially, the units were mobilising under the name of “peace brigades”, formed only to protect Shia mosques and neighbourhoods from attack by Isis. Their commanders also claim that they are operating purely under government command.
“The Iraqi Army has their chain of orders and we operate within those, it would be chaos otherwise,” said Hakim al Zamili, a Sadr City MP who turned up at the parade in military fatigues.
However, the prospect of the Mahdi army getting directly involved against the Sunni militants of Isis does carry the risk of the conflict spiralling out of government control. With both sides accused of atrocities against each other during the 2006-7 civil war, the fear is that the “peace brigades” may not be peaceful for much longer.
Isis allies ‘turn on jihadists’ as 17 killed in clashes
Elsewhere in Iraq, Sunni militants who fought together to capture swathes of Iraqi territory reportedly turned their weapons on each other during clashes in Kirkuk province that cost 17 lives, according to reports.The fighting erupted on Friday evening between Isis and the Army of the Men of the Naqshbandiyah Order (JRTN) in Hawija, in Kirkuk province, sources told AFP.
There were differing accounts as to what sparked the firefight, which is a potential sign of the fraying of the Sunni insurgent alliance that has overrun vast stretches of territory north of Baghdad in less than two weeks.
Women watch Mehdi Army fighters loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr take part during a parade in Basra, southeast of Baghdad (Reuters)
One security official said JRTN fighters had refused an Isis demand to give up their weapons and pledge allegiance to the jihadist force.
Witnesses, however, told AFP the two sides clashed over who would take over multiple fuel tankers in the area.
Analysts have noted that while the Sunni insurgents, who are led by Isis but also include a litany of other groups including loyalists of now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein, have formed a wide alliance, it is unclear if the broader grouping can hold together given their disparate ideologies.
Isis espouses an extremist interpretation of Islam and wants to establish an Islamic state, whereas other armed groups have political differences with the regime in Baghdad, suggesting the alliance could eventually break down.
Isis seizes key border Syria border crossing; 30 killed
Iraqi security officials said Sunni militants had seized a Syrian border crossing on Saturday after killing some 30 Iraqi troops in a day of clashes.The officials said Saturday that Isis and allied militants seized the crossing near the border town of Qaim, about 200 miles west of Baghdad, after battling Iraqi troops throughout the previous day.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.
Mahdi Marches in Baghdad take part in a parade in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad (Reuters)
The capture of the Qaim border crossing deals a further blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, which has struggled to push back against Islamic extremists and allied militants who have seized large swaths of the country, including the second largest city Mosul, and who have vowed to march on Baghdad.
Sunni militants have carved out a large swath of territory astride the Iraqi-Syrian border and seized Iraq’s second largest city Mosul earlier this month.
Militants have long traveled back and forth across the porous border, but the control of crossings allows them to more easily move weapons and heavy equipment to different battlefields.
Obama: Iraqi leaders allowed sectarian divisions to fester
The fall of the border crossing came asUS president Barack Obama said that Iraq’s conflict is the result of sectarian divisions that have been allowed to fester.It is up to Iraq’s people and leaders to resolve those differences, said Obama.
“Some of the forces that have always possibly pulled Iraq apart are stronger now, [and] those forces that could keep the country united are weaker,” he told NBC Nightly News. “It is ultimately going to be up to the Iraqi leadership to try to pull the politics of the country back together again.”
Mr Obama is sending up to 300 US military advisers to Iraq and has threatened air strikes as Sunni Islamists have gained control of the north of the country and made a push toward Baghdad. Growing mistrust between Shia and Sunni Muslims has heightened tensions in the country, where the United States fought a war from 2003 to 2011, the president said.
Iraq’s prime minister Maliki faces mounting pressure to form an inclusive government or step aside, after a top Shiite cleric also strongly hinted he is in part to blame for the worst crisis since US troops withdrew from the country at the end of 2011.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most respected voice for Iraq’s Shiite majority, on Friday joined calls for al-Maliki to reach out to the Kurdish and Sunni minorities.
Al-Sistani normally stays above the political fray, and his comments, delivered through a representative, could ultimately seal al-Maliki’s fate.
Calling for a dialogue between the political coalitions that won seats in the April 30 parliamentary election, al-Sistani said it was imperative that they form “an effective government that enjoys broad national support, avoids past mistakes and opens new horizons toward a better future for all Iraqis.”
Al-Sistani is deeply revered by Iraq’s majority Shiites, and his critical words could force al-Maliki, who emerged from relative obscurity in 2006 to lead the country, to step down.
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