Inside a Shia Death Squad
Over at The Guardian:
In the second of two remarkable dispatches from behind Baghdad’s front lines, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad meets the commander of a Shia death squad
Saturday January 27, 2007
The GuardianFadhel is a slim, well-muscled 26-year-old Mahdi Army commander with a thin goatee beard and smoothed down hair that looks like a flat cap. One day last month he described how he and his men seized a group of three Sunni men suspected of killing his fellow Shia. “I followed the group for weeks and then one of them crossed the bridge to Karrada [a Shia district]. We first informed a nearby Iraqi army checkpoint that we were arresting terrorists then we attacked them and put them in the boots of the cars. We only have six to seven minutes when we grab someone – we have to act quickly, if he resists we shoot him.”
In this case, he said, the men were taken to Sadr City, the Shia slum to the north-east of Baghdad, where they were interrogated by a “committee” which ordered their execution. “We ask the families of the terrorists for ransom money,” said Fadhel. “And after they pay the ransom we kill them anyway.”
Kidnapping in Baghdad these days is as much about economics as retribution or sectarian hatred. Another Shia man close to the Mahdi Army told me: “They kidnap 10 Sunnis, they get ransom on five, and kill them all, in each big kidnap operation they make at least $50 000, it’s the best business in Baghdad.”
An interesting read. The sad truth is this: we can give in to their demands every now and then, we can try to reason… but it won’t work. It will not end their violence and hatred. The only thing that will stop them is for us to give in to all their demands… and that’s something we don’t want.
Others blogging:
Robert Spencer
Ayn Clouter of at The American Street
7 Responses to “Inside a Shia Death Squad”
Just like Russia. When there’s a weak governement, mafia-like gangs flourish. And in Iraq, they can even use the sectarian tensions as an alibi for their criminal activities. The only chance for establishing some law again is a strong Shiite government, composed of and backed by the main leaders of the Mahdi army, to replace the puppet regime of Maliki. Of course, it will be corrupt, too, and it won’t be good news for the Sunnis, but at least it will have a chance to stop the reign of the militias. However, it doesn’t look as if Bush is willing to accept this yet…
See, these guys emmigrate to North America and want to fit in. They’re just nasty little terrorists and jail time doesn’t straighten them out. They burden society too much.
They try the terror later anyway.
MVG, I’m a little confused. Exactly what demands of the Shia or at least the Shia death squads are you referring to here?
This illustrates well the problem that we face with the Mahdi infiltration of the various ministries. The Police, Military , Interior, as well as Transportation ministries [among others] are all suspect and obviously will not be involved with any counter insurgency sweeps of Baghdad. Even if the surge works perfectly all sides know it is only a temporary reprieve, as soon as US forces leave it is back to business as usual. There is no possibility of reconciliation and the Shiite majority government has not shown any sign of reigning in their own side in the interests of peaceful coexistence. I sill feel that all we will do is delay the inevitable breakdown. The idea we can keep this nation together is the problem, if we want a lasting peace the only solution is to break up the country and have the three major groups live separately from each other, the Kurds have already done this for the most part.
I am now seeing the surge as the president’s cover for redepolyment. He’ll move the 20,000 in by the summer, hoping that the violence will decrease-at least temporarily. The militias may lay low, knowing that we can’t keep an increased presence up for too long. If the violence decreases, the Iraqi govt may or may not be able to take advantage of it to make political compromises. Either way- we will start redeploying by the summer. If it works, Bush will declare victory, if not he will blame Maliki for not taking advantage of the decreased violence to find a political solution to the chaos. Thus, Bush comes out a big winner, and doesn’t have to live with the onus of following Baker-Hamilton- that he needed his dad’s buds to bail him out!
Very odd that MVG is telling us we can’t negotiate as if he has spent years trying. In my experience most any group will negotiate, but it takes honest discussions with all issues on the table. As for kidnapping, is it really worse in Iran or Iraq then it is in Mexico? What’s a bigger threat to America the illegal drug trade form Mexico or Iran?
Why is MVG beating the war drum so tirelessly against Iran? What is his intention? Please spell out the solution you are adocating. is it an invasion By America? Is it occupation? Is it just dropping bombs from 1,000 feet (sounds like terrorism to me if you just fly around dropping bombs on people).
And when you fight this ‘war’ what is the solution? 200 years of occupation?
Please be pateint with this. The country of Iran is a mess as it is, and they will very likely collapse on their own. The parable with the USSR is a good one. The people there are no more anti-american then most, but the Govt. has a diplomatic and poltical reason for doing what it does. We need to be smarter then these people. I believe that Bush acted exactly as Bin Laden would have wanted. Thousnads more Americans dead, an occupation and intervention that makes American weaker and looking more and more ridiculous. There is no slution, but we took out a secular leader or a country that provied ample checks on Iran’s power.
So bully for Bush and MVG and the Republicans. You got us into this violent mess and now you want more violence to get ‘us out’?
Don’t worry about the Shia death squads. We have Shia allies in Karbala. Maybe our Madhi Army allies will help us find our missing Iraqis born US Army translator.