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28-10-2005 Scotsman Gun battle sees Iraq near civil war By Chief News Correspondent Gethin Chamberlain THE conflict in Iraq took another significant step in the direction of civil war yesterday when rival Sunni and Shiite militias fought a gun battle outside Baghdad in which 15 people were killed. The fighting broke out after Sunni insurgents kidnapped a member of militant Shiite cleric Muqtadr al Sadr's Mahdi Army. The kidnapped man's colleagues then mounted a raid on a house in Nahrawan, 15 miles south-east of Baghdad, freeing him and snatching two of the Sunni insurgents. But Amer al-Husseini, an aide to Mr Sadr, said they were ambushed on their way out of the town. Falah al-Mohammadawi, a police major, said the 15 deaths included 14 Madhi Army members and a policeman. The incident underscores tensions among hard-line elements in Iraq's rival religious and ethnic communities at a time when the United States is struggling to promote a political process seen as key to calming the insurgency. Yesterday's gun battle appears to have been the first such clash between Sunni and Shiite militias. Earlier this week, Sunni insurgents mounted attacks on Kurdish targets in northern Iraq. The significance of the clashes is not yet clear. There have been previous warnings of a slide towards civil war, but the majority of Iraqis have so far kept faith with the democratic process, despite scepticism and outright opposition to the new constitution among Sunnis. Most Sunnis opposed the constitution, fearing it could lead to the break-up of the country into semi-autonomous regions favouring rival Kurds and majority Shiites. Sunni Arabs also largely boycotted the January parliamentary election, enabling the Shiites and Kurds to win an overwhelming majority and shape the constitution. US officials see Sunni participation in campaigning for the 15 December election as a hopeful sign that more members of the community will forsake the insurgency, enabling the US-led coalition to begin drawing down its forces next year. But even as Sunni groups are coming together, the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, which swept most of the parliament seats in January, appears to be fraying. Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has decided not to endorse the Shiite coalition which ran under his banner in January, according to sources on both sides. Close associates said Mr Sistani's decision reflected his disappointment with prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Shiite-led government. Six Iraqis died and 12 were wounded in other attacks yesterday and the US military command said three US soldiers had died in separate attacks the day before. In Baghdad, a suicide attacker rammed his car into a US military convoy in Karradah, killing one Iraqi passer-by and wounding nine. In Dora, one of the capital's most violent areas, a drive-by shooting by insurgents killed a policeman. A similar attack killed a pedestrian in central Baghdad. In Kirkuk , 180 miles north of the capital, a police officer died after a drive-by shooting, and two bomb attacks aimed at police patrols killed one and wounded six. In Fallujah, insurgents fired a mortar round at the Iraqi army headquarters, leading soldiers to return fire randomly and hit a nearby car carrying three teachers to a school, killing one of them. On Wednesday, US aircraft destroyed more militant safe houses near the Syrian border, and apparently killed a senior al-Qaeda in Iraq figure who was using religious courts to try Iraqis who supported coalition forces.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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