A clash in the south with Sadr's militia kills 25 soldiers, raising doubts about troop readiness.
By Solomon Moore
Los Angeles Times, 29 August 2006
BAGHDAD — A major battle between the Iraqi army and Shiite Muslim militiamen in the southern city of Diwaniya left more than 40 dead, including 25 soldiers, and more than 90 injured, U.S. and Iraqi military sources said.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene in which combatants fought through the streets using machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. At one point during the battle, which began Sunday night and raged into Monday, militiamen executed a dozen Iraqi soldiers who had run out of ammunition, Maj. Gen. Othman Ghanimi said.
The Iraqi army's inability to deal a swift and decisive blow to the militia uprising in Diwaniya raised questions about the readiness of tens of thousands of recently trained troops who are taking on increased security responsibilities nationwide.
Half of Iraq's 10 army divisions either are in charge of their own territories or are in the process of taking over authority from the U.S.-led coalition. U.S. forces appear to have made progress recently in reducing the level of violence in Baghdad, but ultimately they are counting on having the Iraqi army take responsibility for security there as well.
Further evidence that Iraq's defense network remains divided by regional and sectarian loyalties came over the weekend when 100 Iraqi soldiers of a battalion of 550 refused to deploy to Baghdad from the southeastern province of Maysan, in part because of concern about confronting fellow Muslim sect members. The British military called the incident a mutiny.
The battle in Diwaniya ended only when reinforcements arrived from the city of Kut, 60 miles away. It was sparked after Iraqi soldiers in the predominantly Shiite town arrested a member of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Al Mahdi militia, saying the man was planning bombings there, authorities said.
Sadr, 33, whose militia was formed soon after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and clashed with American forces in Najaf in 2004, is among Iraq's most powerful figures. After initially opposing Iraq's new government and constitution, Sadr's followers have become a major force in Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's administration, holding several Cabinet seats.
Members of Sadr's militia also have joined the Iraqi security forces in large numbers and allegedly have carried out sectarian killings under the color of law.
There was some dispute Monday over the U.S. role in the Diwaniya fighting. U.S. and Iraqi military officials said American helicopters provided cover for the Iraqi army but did not engage in the battle. Sadr leaders said American troops also fired on militiamen.
"The Iraqi army, accompanied by the U.S. Army, attacked areas inside Diwaniya that are known for their support for the Sadr movement," said a representative of the local Sadr office, on condition of anonymity. "They raided and bombed civilian homes and arrested residents. They killed four civilians, injured 50 and arrested more."
U.S. military officials cast the 12-hour battle as a hard-won victory by overwhelmed Iraqi police and troops.
"We had a situation that was beyond the … initial capability of the Iraqi police, so they called in the Iraqi army" to arrest the militia member, said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, commander of the Iraq Assistance Group in Baghdad. "The Iraqi army and the Iraqi police together, as a force, repelled the insurgents. I think that's a good-news story."
By Monday night, Iraqi authorities had imposed a curfew in Diwaniya and were negotiating with Sadr representatives. Sadr representative Sheik Abdel Razaq Nidawi demanded the withdrawal of military reinforcements and the release of the militia member.
The confrontation in Diwaniya, about 90 miles south of Baghdad, started on the same day that Al Mahdi fighters allegedly attacked a cafe in Khalis, a village north of Baghdad, and killed 22 people. The paramilitary fighters also are accused of carrying out a raid Sunday on the home of a Khalis judge, killing his brother.
The attacks, as well as the alleged mutiny, left U.S. officials defending their plans to transfer power to Iraqi forces.
Iraqi army officials said that the mostly Shiite force in Maysan was reluctant to operate in Baghdad, where they might have to face off against fellow Shiites.
"What's tough right now is the Iraqi army, for the most part, is a regionally based unit," Pittard said at a briefing with Pentagon reporters. "The majority of this particular unit was Shia, and they felt — the leadership of that unit and their soldiers felt — they were needed down there in Maysan province."
Instances of Iraqi units failing to fight or refusing to deploy to combat areas were relatively common early in the reconstruction period. Although mass mutinies have become rarer after U.S. leaders reorganized training and equipping programs two years ago, desertions continue to be a serious problem, particularly in remote deployments where living conditions are harsh and payment can be haphazard.
This year, Iraqi army leaders in Al Anbar province complained that desertion rates in some military units had climbed to as high as 40%.
Pittard portrayed the Maysan incident as isolated, although he acknowledged it was the second recent instance of Iraqi soldiers refusing to deploy. A number of soldiers from a northern-based unit, the 2nd Iraqi Army Division, objected to going to Ramadi, where U.S. Marines have mounted a major anti-insurgent offensive in recent months.
The army's retention problems highlight the difficult task of creating a national force that transcends Iraq's deep divisions.
"What it tells me is that, primarily, the Iraqi army has been a regionally recruited organization, which really means if you are from a particular area, that's where you're recruited from, and that's where your roots are," Pittard said. "Now as other units are asked to go to other places, it becomes more difficult because, for many of those soldiers, they just thought that they would be operating in their homeland areas."
British Maj. Charlie Burbridge said the Iraqi battalion in Maysan province would reassemble and deploy to Baghdad in two weeks. He said British trainers' optimism about the Iraqi army was undiminished.
"This organization was picked to be deployed to Baghdad because the commanding officer is the best commanding officer in the division and this battalion continues to be considered the best battalion in the division," he said.
Maysan has become a source of embarrassment for the Iraqi army and its Western backers. On Friday, hundreds of Iraqi soldiers and police officers looked on as thousands of looters ransacked a British military base in the provincial city of Amarah that had been handed over hastily to the Iraqi army.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military today announced the deaths of two soldiers who had been wounded, one while operating Sunday in Al Anbar province and the other when his vehicle rolled into a canal Aug. 21 near Balad. Neither was immediately named.
In Baghdad on Monday, a joint force of 3,000 Iraqi troops and 8,000 U.S. service members continued a military sweep aimed at curtailing sectarian violence between Sunni Arabs and Shiites.
Despite the heavy security presence, 31 violent deaths were reported Monday and today in the capital. Thirteen people died when a car bomb exploded at the gate of the Interior Ministry, two were killed by a bomb in the Dora neighborhood of southeast Baghdad, and one more died when a car bomb exploded near a gas station.
A bomb also was planted in the minivan of a Baghdad barber, killing him and injuring five other people.
Iraqi police discovered 14 bodies, all shot in the head execution-style, in southwest Baghdad.
In the southern port city of Basra, a motorcyclist detonated a bomb near a market, killing seven people and injuring 23.
In Kirkuk, a roadside bomb killed three bodyguards of an Iraqi army general.
Times staff writers Peter Spiegel in Washington, Saif Rasheed, Saif Hameed and Suhail Ahmad in Baghdad, Saad Fakhrildeen in Najaf and Ali Windawi in Kirkuk and a special correspondent in Basra contributed to this report.
--------------------------------
Citation: Solomon Moore. "Iraq Army Battles Shiites," Los Angeles Times, 29 August 2006.
Original URL: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-iraq29aug29,1,7607105.story?coll=la-iraq-complete
--------------------------------