By Mariam Karouny
Reuters, 10 July 2006
While condemning in public the sectarian death squads that gunned down 40 people on Sunday in a Sunni part of Baghdad, some Iraqi Shi'ite leaders say in private retaliation for Sunni insurgent bomb attacks is understandable.
The bloodiest such violence yet in the capital has rekindled fears of all-out civil war and posed serious questions over Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ability to keep a promise to curb violence by fellow Shi'ites.
Shi'ite leaders, talking privately on Monday, spoke with resignation, saying more bloodshed is inevitable in Iraq's culture of vendetta and that clerical restraint on Shi'ites is flagging in the face of repeated Sunni bombings.
Minority Sunnis called the shots for decades in Iraq until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein ended their dominance and empowered majority Shi'ites. Sunnis have formed the backbone of the bloody insurgency that has raged since then.
"It is very, very difficult for us to justify why we are not taking revenge," said a senior Shi'ite figure linked to one of the most powerful militia groups, saying that his movement was not carrying out killings but could understand those who were.
"With every car bomb and every attack on a Shi'ite mosque our people are calling us and accusing us of being cowards," said the official, who like others interviewed asked not to be identified.
No longer is the problem so much containing formal militias, most of them linked to government parties, but stopping ordinary Shi'ites from picking up some of the millions of guns freely available in Iraq and turning on their neighbors.
Another leading Shi'ite politician noted the way gunmen came out of the shadows after the bombing in February of a major Shi'ite shrine in Samarra, blamed on al Qaeda, and launched a wave of execution-style killings, despite pleas for restraint from revered cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
"CAN'T BLAME THEM"
"It is natural now that there are some Shi'ite fighters who think they are doing what they believe in to defend their families," said the politician, who is from one of the main parties in Maliki's national unity coalition. "I personally can't blame them, since the government cannot protect them."
As part of a plan for national reconciliation, Maliki has vowed to disband militias, mostly armed wings of Shi'ite Islamist parties formed to fight Saddam's Sunni-led government.
There have been a number of operations, involving U.S. and Iraqi forces, this month against Shi'ite guerrilla leaders. The targets, however, have mostly been rogue elements, Shi'ite sources say, who have alienated their own leaders.
Another official in one of the main Shi'ite political groups said Sunni leaders should shoulder some blame for events like Sunday's rampage in Baghdad because they had failed to clearly condemn Sunni violence since the fall of Saddam three years ago:
"The reaction is completely understandable," the official said of the Shi'ite gunmen.
"What do they expect the Shi'ites to do when they bomb them every day and Sunni leaders do not even condemn the attacks?"
The hardening of sectarian attitudes is audible and visible across Iraq. Many Sunni politicians, in private moments, also have a tendency to find justifications for violence.
The Shi'ite official said he was increasingly resigned to the vicious cycle continuing. "We are a society built on blood feud," he said. "For every Shi'ite killed there will be a Sunni killed -- and vice versa."
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Citation: Mariam Karouny. "Iraq Shi'ites see reasons for death squad killings," Reuters, 10 July 2006.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060710/wl_nm/iraq_shiites_dc
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