Southern
Iraqi Tribes Joining
Armed Resistance
By Dahr Jamail &
Ali al-Fadhily
23 January, 2007
Inter
Press Service
BAGHDAD - Violence is spreading
further across Iraq, as Shi'ite Arab tribes in the south begin to engage
occupation forces in new armed resistance.
Resistance in the southern
parts of Iraq has been escalating over the last three months, leading
to increased casualties among British and other occupation forces.
In the last seven months,
at least 24 British soldiers have been killed in southern Iraq, with
at least as many wounded, according to the independent website Iraq
Coalition Casualties. So far at least 128 British soldiers have died
in Iraq, along with 123 of other nationalities. Most of these have been
stationed in southern Iraq.
Casualties earlier were far
lower.
Attacks against occupation
forces appear to stem from a growing nationalism.
"This is not about vengeance,"
a former Iraqi army officer from Kut, 200 km south of Baghdad told IPS
in Baghdad. "People have lost hope in the US-led occupation's promises,
and they are thinking of saving the country from Iranian influence which
has been supported, or at least allowed by the Multinational Forces."
British and US military leaders
tend not to say who has been targeting their forces in the south. They
simply call the resistance fighters "terrorists," or they
point to the Mahdi Army led by Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as the
only source of disturbance in the south.
While members of the Mahdi
Army certainly carry out attacks against occupation forces in southern
Iraq, other homegrown resistance seems to have taken root, fed also
by earlier memories.
"People here have always
hated the US and British occupation of Iraq, and remembered their grandfathers
who fought the British troops with the simplest weapons," Jassim
al-Assadi, a school headmaster from Kut told IPS on a recent visit to
Baghdad.
Al-Assadi was referring to
the Shi'ite resistance that eventually played a key role in expelling
British forces from Iraq during the 1920s and 1930s.
Armed resistance against
the occupation in the south was slow to begin with because religious
clerics instructed their followers to give the occupation time to fulfill
promises made by the Bush and Blair administrations, al-Assadi said.
"But now they do not
believe any cleric's promises any more. They have started fighting,
and that is that."
A political analyst in Baghdad,
who asked to be referred to as W. al-Tamimi, told IPS that he believes
occupation forces have been working in tandem with death squads. "We
have been observing American and British occupation forces supporting
those death squads all over Iraq, but we were still hoping for reconciliation."
Al-Tamimi said the sheikh
of his tribe, which is both Shi'ite and Sunni, was "under great
pressure by the tribe's young men to let them join the resistance."
The force of the growing
resistance in the south has become more and more evident. Late last
August 1,200 British soldiers known as The Queen's Royal Hussars abruptly
evacuated their three-year-old base after taking continuous mortar and
missile fire from Shi'ite resistance fighters.
The British military announced
the move as part of a long-planned handover of security to the Iraqi
government, but it was clear that the move was abrupt. Iraqi authorities
were not notified.
"British forces evacuated
the military headquarters without coordination with the Iraqi forces,"
Dhaffar Jabbar, spokesman for the local governor said at the time.
Looters promptly moved into
the empty base and removed an estimated half a million dollars worth
of equipment the British left behind in their hasty retreat.
In another significant event
last August, Sheikh Faissal al-Khayoon, chief of the major Shi'ite Arab
tribe Beni Assad, was killed by death squads with suspected Iranian
backing. The killers are believed by men from the tribe to have been
working for the Iraqi Ministry of Interior in Basra.
Khayoon's tribe members reacted
immediately. They took over the streets and government offices, and
set fire to the Iranian consulate in Basra. The protests continued until
clerics and Iraqi government officials promised them a full investigation.
"It was another lie
that some of us believed," a senior Beni Assad leader told IPS
on condition of anonymity. "The Sheikh was killed by Iranian collaborators
and we made a promise to his soul that his precious life will be avenged."
Beni Tamim is another tribe
with both Sunni and Shi'ite members. Members say their Sheikh, Hamid
al-Suhail, was killed Jan. 1 this year by the Mahdi Army, which they
believe has Iranian support. He died in the northern Baghdad Shi'ite-dominated
Shula Quarter.
"He was 70 years old,
and brutally killed by Mahdi death squads by pushing him from a high
building," one of the sheikh's nephews told IPS in Baghdad. "Iran
is behind all this and we, Beni Tamim are well prepared to face their
yellow winds that are blowing Iraq apart."
Leaders of the two tribes,
among many other tribal chiefs in the south, are working to achieve
unity between Sunni and Shi'ite groups.
(Inter Press Service)
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