Iraqi Shiites in show of strength as conflict rages
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THOUSANDS of heavily armed Shiite militiamen paraded through several Iraqi cities yesterday as Sunni militants seized two strategically located towns in what appeared to be a new offensive in the western Anbar province.
The capture of the two towns — Qaim on the Syrian border on Friday and Raway on the Euphrates yesterday — dealt another blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, which has struggled to push back against Islamic extremists who have seized large swaths of the country’s north, including the second-largest city Mosul.
But while al-Maliki has come under pressure to reach out to disaffected Kurds and Sunnis, the display of heavy weapons by the Shiite fighters indicated that forces beyond Baghdad’s control may be pushing the conflict toward a sectarian showdown.
Sunni militants have controlled the city of Fallujah in Anbar and parts of the provincial capital of Ramadi since January. The vast Anbar province stretches from the western edges of Baghdad all the way to Jordan and Syria to the northwest. The fighting in Anbar has greatly disrupted use of the highway linking Baghdad to the Jordanian border, a key artery for goods and passengers.
In Baghdad, about 20,000 men, many in combat gear, marched through the Sadr City district with assault rifles, machine guns, multiple rocket launchers, field artillery and missiles. Similar parades took place in the southern cities of Amarah and Basra.
The parades were staged by followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who once led a powerful militia that battled US troops and was blamed for some of the mass killing of Sunni civilians during the sectarian bloodletting that peaked in 2006 and 2007.
Police and army officials said the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, along with allied militants, seized Qaim and its crossing, about 320 kilometers west of Baghdad, after killing about 30 Iraqi troops in day long clashes on Friday.
Chief military spokesman Lt-General Qassim al-Moussawi acknowledged Qaim’s fall, telling journalists that troops aided by local tribesmen sought to clear the city of “terrorists.”
Sunni militants have carved out a large fiefdom along the Iraqi-Syrian border and have traveled back and forth with ease, but the control of crossings, like the one in Qaim, allows them to more easily move weapons and heavy equipment to different battlefields.
The fall of Qaim came as al-Maliki faces mounting pressure to form an inclusive government or step aside, with both a top Shiite cleric and the White House strongly hinting he is in part to blame.
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 a day after President Barack Obama challenged him to create a leadership representative of all Iraqis.
Al-Sistani normally stays above the political fray, and his comments, delivered through a representative, could ultimately seal al-Maliki’s fate.
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