Killers Arrested and the Mahdi Army Splits
can't get too much good news
By streiff Posted in War — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Multi-National Force-Iraq reports the capture of the leaders of the raid that kidnapped and murdered five US soldiers in Karbala in January. [Memo to MNF-I: headlines are supposed to grab attention, not hide the contents of a story]
Over the past several days, Coalition forces in Basra and Hillah captured Qais Khazali, his brother Laith Khazali, and several other members of the Khazali network, an organization directly connected to the kidnapping and murder in January of five American soldiers in Karbala.
This is good news but there is bigger game afoot.
Read on.
Probably the key stumbling block in bringing a semblance of security to Iraq is the dismantling of the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigades. While the Badr Brigades are fairly disciplined, the Mahdi Army is larger and much more amorphous in nature. Many of the killings in the past months have been attributed to the Mahdi Army killing Mahdi Army members who were freelancing and making al-Sadr look worse.
Since the security crackdown has been announced, Moqtada al-Sadr has made himself scarce. His absence and the increased pressure by the US and Iraqi governments has resulted in the Mahdi Army fracturing:
The violent Shiite militia known as the Mahdi Army is breaking into splinter groups, with up to 3,000 gunmen now financed directly by Iran and no longer loyal to the firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, adding a potentially even more deadly element to Iraq's violent mix.
Two senior militia commanders told The Associated Press that hundreds of these fighters have crossed into Iran for training by the elite Quds force, a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard thought to have trained Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Muslim fighters in Bosnia and Afghanistan
The AP, of course, is unrelenting in its making of lemons from lemonade. A fractured Mahdi Army is much easier to coopt than a coherent force. Every split reduces its strength. And a straight up militia without political representation will be much easier for al-Maliki to crack down on. But those are different stories.
Qais Khazali used to be described as al-Sadr’s spokesman, but he is one of those who have split and affiliated with Iran.
Qais Khazali was known as a spokesman for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political movement in 2004 in Baghdad's Sadr City, but it is not clear whether he is still involved with al-Sadr's movement.
Al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, a Shiite militia, is suspected of heavy involvement in Iraq's sectarian violence.
Two Mehdi Army commanders told The Associated Press that Khazali had split with al-Sadr and leads 3,000 fighters of his own with financing from Iran.
Breaking the Mahdi Army is a key to success and this is a sign that it may be happening.
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Killers Arrested and the Mahdi Army Splits 3 Comments (0 topical, 3 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
...with an organization akin to Hezbollah. His name is George Soros.
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"We can all do our part to save the planet by dying." - R.E. Finch
Iranian aligned insurgents get captured following several Iranian military personnel turn up missing. I wonder if the previously captured personnel's ability to talk about what they know had anything to do with it?
Wubbies World - The odds of hitting your target go up dramatically when you actually aim for it!
There are some credible reports that Sadr has bigger ambitions than just that of a "freedom-fighter=terror-specialist". He's developing business relationships to develop everything from a cellphone company to radio&TV stations. He wants to be a political player with an organization akin to Hezbollah.