Shi’ite clerics fear cannot prevent civil war

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi Shi’ite religious leaders’
restraining influence on militia groups is waning fast and
senior clerics fear they are dragging Iraq into civil war, a
source close to the clerical authorities said on Wednesday.

Sounding the most urgent note of alarm yet from the
Marja’iya, the religious establishment led by Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani, the senior source told Reuters: “People are
paying less and less heed to the Marja’iya every day because of
how sectarian killings are affecting Shi’ite public opinion.”

In two years of attacks on their newly empowered majority
community by Sunni rebels, Shi’ite militias have mostly
respected calls for restraint from the holy city of Najaf but
senior figures in Shi’ite armed groups speak of mounting anger.

Despite insistent pleas for calm last month from Sistani
hundreds were killed in days of reprisal attacks after the
bombing of a Shi’ite shrine in Samarra, prompting fears that
Shi’ite anger could plunge Iraq into all-out civil war.

“The Marja’iya is still calling for restraint but there is
a great worry and fear that people are responding less because
of continual pressure every day from the killing and
slaughter,” the source close to the Najaf religious
establishment said.

A multiple car bombing in the Baghdad stronghold of Shi’ite
cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr on Sunday was
followed by the discovery of dozens of tortured bodies in the
capital who police said appeared to victims of sectarian
reprisals.

Though Sadr, a youthful firebrand, said his Mehdi Army
would not retaliate, several bodies labeled “Traitor” were hung
from telegraph poles in his Sadr City bastion after the
bombings.

Over the past year, pro-government Shi’ite militias, some
working with the security forces, have been accused of
killings.

But senior sources in militias, many of them formed as the
underground Shi’ite opposition to Saddam Hussein, say they face
pressure from supporters to strike Sunni rebel strongholds.

“People are calling me and accusing us of being cowards,”
one senior Shi’ite militia commander said. “They are saying
that we are not doing anything to protect them and will start
defending themselves … We are running out of soothing words.”

WANING INFLUENCE

After the destruction of Samarra’s Golden Mosque, the aging
and reclusive Sistani backed up written statements calling for
restraint by releasing television footage of him meeting fellow
senior clerics, the first time he had been seen in two years.

Yet Sunni counterparts mocked his inability to rein in the
gunmen in the days that followed and analysts agree his
influence seems to be waning fast on some Shi’ite groups.

“We take our orders from God to preserve the Shi’ite sect,
not from you,” a senior Shi’ite source quoted the leaders of
one prominent militia group as telling Najaf clerics recently.

Militia sources said that, following the attack on Sadr
City on Sunday, some groups were readying plans to raid Sunni
areas.

The source close to the Marja’iya said senior clerics were
more worried about a generalized rage by Shi’ites in a country
where virtually every household has an automatic rifle than it
was about organized militias like the Mehdi Army, the Badr
movement and other pro-government organized armed groups.

“The issue is not the Mehdi Army or the others. It goes
beyond that now. There is huge tension among the Shi’ite public
and we’re worried the situation could get out of control,” the
source said. “We fear we’re reaching this point.”

Hadi al-Amery, the head of the Badr Organization loyal to
the powerful, pro-Iranian SCIRI party, told Reuters he too saw
a wider issue of ordinary Shi’ites forming small armed groups.

“People have begun forming popular committees to protect
themselves in some villages and towns,” he said. “They are
defending themselves against terrorists.”

“What are we supposed to tell them? ‘No, don’t do it. Don’t
carry guns?’ As the Badr Organization, we are ready to help the
government if it asks us and also we’re telling the people to
ensure their own security if the government is incompetent.”

Amery said the broader Sunni population had to take
responsibility for the insurgent groups operating among them,
suggesting that Sunni leaders were not doing enough.

“These (insurgents) … need local support,” he said,
suggesting that Shi’ites’ enemies were at large in the broader
population and that the government was not doing enough to
prevent guerrilla attacks on the majority community.

“If you do not protect people, then people will find
themselves forced to protect themselves.”

(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald)