Southern Iraqi Tribes Joining Armed Resistance

Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

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.