Civil
War In Iraq?
By Dahr Jamail
19 April 2006
t
r u t h o u t
The people of England
have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard
to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by
a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués
are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than
we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than
the public knows ... We are today not far from a disaster.
-- T.E. Lawrence (a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia),
The Sunday Times, August 1920
On
Monday, April 17, my sources in Baghdad reported fierce fighting in
the al-Adhamiya neighborhood of the capital city, as well as fighting
in the al-Dora neighborhood. One source, who lives in the predominantly
Sunni area of Adhamiya, had been telling me the situation was disintegrating
for days leading up to this. There had been clashes every day for four
days leading up to yesterday's huge clash there, with sporadic fighting
between Sunni resistance fighters and members of the two largest Shia
militias. The armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution
in Iraq, the Badr Organization, and Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army have
been launching ongoing attacks against fighters in the neighborhood.
There is a shorter version of this description.
Civil war.
Yet we don't hear it described
as such in the corporate media, nor from the Cheney administration.
Their propaganda insists that Iraq is not yet in a civil war.
But in Adhamiya, every night
now for several weeks roads have been closed with tires, trunks of date
palm trees and other objects to prevent "kidnappers and Shia death
squads" from entering the area, according to one source, whom I'm
keeping anonymous for security reasons.
His description of the fierce
fighting in his neighborhood is quite different from the reporting of
it in mainstream outlets.
"Sunday night at 12:30
a.m. clashes started just like on the four previous nights, but it was
very heavy and from different directions. It was different from the
other nights in quantity and quality; it was truly like the hell which
I haven't seen even in the battles of the war between Iraq and Iran
during the eighties," wrote my source. He added that mortars and
rocket-propelled grenades were used, and so much ammunition that the
sky was "glowing red." The situation went on until Monday
morning. He said, "I usually have my cup of coffee in my small
backyard to drink it in a good atmosphere, but the minute I opened the
door someone from the interior ministry commandos shouted at me, telling
me to get inside or he'd shoot me. Of course I stayed inside and the
shooting continued in a very heavy way until 12:30 p.m., when the American
forces came to start helping the militia's attack on al-Adhamiya after
they were watching the scene from their helicopters."
He went on to state very
clearly that "these were members of the Badr militia and Sadr's
Mehdi Army who were raiding the neighborhood."
Another witness at the scene
wrote, "Men in police uniforms attacked the neighbourhood. The
Ministry of Interior claimed the uniformed men don't belong to the puppet
[Iraqi government] forces, but local residents are quite sure they are
special-forces from the Ministry of Interior, probably Badr brigades.
The neighbourhood was sealed off and the mobile phone network was disconnected
until 10:45 p.m. Electricity was cut off from 10 a.m. on."
Meanwhile, Reuters obediently
parroted the US military by reporting that "Insurgents mount bold
attack in Baghdad," and saying, "About 50 insurgents mounted
a brazen attack on Iraqi forces in Baghdad on Monday, prompting U.S.
troops to provide support in a battle that lasted seven hours, a U.S.
military spokesman said. The guerrillas attacked Iraqi forces in the
mostly Sunni Arab district of Adhamiya in northern Baghdad overnight.
Five rebels were killed and one member of the Iraqi forces was wounded.
There were no U.S. casualties, said the spokesman."
While this press report
quoted an Iraqi police official as saying, "Adhamiya residents
have taken up arms to prevent the Shi'ite militia from entering,"
and "Adhamiya residents said Shi'ite militiamen accompanied the
Iraqi forces," it added that this could not be confirmed.
An Iraqi in Adhamiya confirmed
this immediately after the clashes ended by writing, "When the
uniformed forces entered the neighbourhood, the National Guards that
are usually patrolling the streets left. Young armed men from the neighbourhood
fought side by side with mujahedin against the attacking forces to protect
Al-Adhamiya. Several residents have been killed in the streets, but
there are currently no figures available. US troops also entered the
neighbourhood. At first, they only stood by and watched; later on they,
too, fired at the locals, who tried to repel the attacks. Later in the
day, rumours circulated that another fierce attack of Al-Adhamiya is
planned on Wednesday, but ... couldn't confirm this information."
Other news outlets directly
contradict the aforementioned statement by the US military spokesman,
when one reported that "gunmen clashed with residents in Baghdad's
Aadhamiya district."
Of course, the military
spokesman also failed to mention that on the same day, "Four gunmen
attacked a Sunni mosque killing a guard in the Adhamiya district of
the capital."
Instead, we hear reporting
that "[US] Army officials said they had suffered no casualties,
and plan to raid homes in search for the gunmen."
Disturbingly, this obvious
US-backed Shia militia invasion of a Sunni neighborhood may well be
a prelude to what the US military is calling a "second liberation
of Baghdad" which they will carry out with the Iraqi army when
a new government is installed.
The Sunday Times reports
that US commanders both in Iraq and at an army base in Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, are planning a "carrot-and-stick" approach by offering
suffering populations "protection" from sectarian violence
in exchange for "rooting out insurgent groups or Al-Qaeda."
Sound like mafia tactics
to you?
The article states that
"Sources close to the Pentagon said Iraqi forces would take the
lead, supported by American air power, special operations, intelligence,
embedded officers and back-up troops. Helicopters suitable for urban
warfare, such as the manoeuvrable AH-6 "Little Birds" ...
are likely to complement the ground attack."
This is disturbingly similar
to what just occurred in al-Adhamiya.
Another glaring example
of the Cheney administration/US military's ongoing war on truth in Iraq
is the open wound which is Fallujah.
Heavy-handed assaults by
the US military continue in Fallujah, where as recently as this Monday
three Iraqi civilians were killed, along with 10 wounded in the Jebail
district of the city. Of the 10 wounded, three were women and two were
children. According to Mustafa Karim, with an Iraqi security force in
the city, "US forces fired on houses in the district following
confrontations with armed groups in the vicinity." Karim added
that residents of Fallujah have been demanding an easing of the tight
security procedures imposed by Iraqi and US armed forces on the region
since November 2004, which have obstructed the passage of civilians
into and out of the region, and "Fallujah has been recently witnessing
a renewed escalation of armed confrontations between US forces and armed
Iraqi groups."
In fact, fierce fighting
in Fallujah has been ongoing since just a few months after the November
2004 US attack, which destroyed most buildings and homes in the city
of 350,000 people.
But the US military doesn't
want people to see that American soldiers are dying there on nearly
a daily basis as of late. Rather than calling it Fallujah when soldiers
die there, they prefer a sort of Bermuda Triangle approach and use "Al-Anbar
Province" for the location of these deaths.
Let's have a brief glance
at some soldiers killed recently in "Al-Anbar Province":
* April 17, Department of
Defense (DOD) announced (hyperlink 'announced' with http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2006/nr20060417-12834.html
) the death of a Marine who "died April 14 from a non-hostile motor
vehicle accident in Al-Anbar province, Iraq."
* April 16, CENTCOM announced:
"Camp Fallujah, Iraq - A Marine ... died due to enemy action while
operating in al Anbar Province April 15."
* April 16, Camp Fallujah,
Iraq - Multi-National Forces (MNF) Iraq announced: "Three Marines
... died due to enemy action while operating in al Anbar Province April
15."
* April 15, Camp Fallujah,
Iraq - MNF Iraq announced: "Two Marines died and 22 were wounded
due to enemy action while operating in al Anbar Province April 13 ...
Ten wounded Marines ... were evacuated to a medical facility at Camp
Fallujah."
* April 15, DOD announced:
"four Marines died April 15 when their HMMWV struck an improvised
explosive device during combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq."
* April 11, DOD announced:
"Lance Cpl. Juana NavarroArellano, 24 ... died April 8 from wounds
received while supporting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq."
* April 10, Camp Fallujah,
Iraq - CENTCOM announced: "A soldier ... died from wounds sustained
due to enemy action while operating in al Anbar Province April 8."
* April 10, Camp Fallujah,
Iraq - CENTCOM announced: "Two soldiers ... died due to enemy action
while operating in al Anbar Province April 9."
* April 8, Camp Fallujah,
Iraq - MNF Iraq announced: "A Marine ... died from wounds sustained
due to enemy action while operating in al Anbar Province April 7."
Note the clue that several
of these are issued from "Camp Fallujah, Iraq."
This is hardly a complete
list of US soldiers killed in Fallujah, and some of the aforementioned
may not have actually been killed inside that city. However, military
announcements of the deaths of soldiers in other places mention the
name of specific cities, whether they occur in Samarra or Tal Afar or
elsewhere.
Obviously the US military
is being intentionally vague when it comes to their admittance of losing
American soldiers within the city limits of Fallujah. An email I received
Monday from one of my sources in Fallujah sheds much light as to why
this is the case, not only in Fallujah, but throughout Iraq.
"Resistance [in Fallujah]
is very active and all the destruction to the city by American soldiers
did not succeed to stop them. You know the city was totally destroyed
in the November attack and is still surrounded and closed for anyone
other than citizens of the city. What is going on now is that the Americans
are trying to conceal their failure here by not letting anybody in.
There were at least five explosions today and more than one clash between
resistance fighters and US soldiers. So all the military procedures,
together with the thousands of casualties, were in vain. In short, the
American Army seems to be losing control in this country and God knows
what they will do in revenge. I expect the worst to come."
Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist who spent
over 8 months reporting from occupied Iraq. He presented evidence of
US war crimes in Iraq at the International Commission of Inquiry on
Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New
York City in January 2006.