Market Bombings: baghdad Locals Want Security, Not Iraqi Policy

Col. Doug Macgregor has kindly forwarded the article below from the Christian Science Monitor. As Doug comments, this raises questions about whether the US dealings with the Sunni tribes will be productive in the long term.

Doug commments: "This article makes it clear that the notion of clear, hold, build is simply chimera. The only thing that holds this stupidity together is American military power and, conversely it is the presence of American military power that prevents a reckoning between the warring sides from occurring."

Christian Science Monitor
February 4, 2008

Market Bombings: Baghdad Locals Want Security, Not Iraqi Police

The Monitor accompanied a high-level militia member on a walk through an area near Friday's bombing.

By Sam Dagher, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

BAGHDAD -- "We are an independent state; no police or army is allowed to come in," proclaims Khalid Jamal al-Qaisi, deputy leader of the US military-backed and predominantly Sunni Arab militia in charge of security in the old Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Fadhil.

The Monitor accompanied Mr. Qaisi, a mid-level member of the former Baath Party, on a walk down the area's main thoroughfare, Kifah Street, on Saturday, one day after a female suicide bomber struck the Ghazil pet market about a mile away on Jumhouriya Street, killing 62 people, according to Iraqi security officials.

Another female bomber killed 37 people in a market in Baghdad Jadida. The combined toll is the worst since July 26, when a truck bomb devastated a full block in the Karrada district, killing almost 100.

Qaisi says his men could have prevented Friday's bombings. He says the attacks only bolster his conviction that Iraq's security forces, both Army and police, are infiltrated by militias and insurgents and riddled with sectarian biases. He says his men do not recognize the authority of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and won't join the security forces under such conditions. Some neighborhood guards, called Concerned Local Citizens are slated to join the Army and police.

Analysts warn that Friday's bombings show that Al Qaeda-linked militants appear to be exploiting the mish-mash of security arrangements in the capital that has US-funded Sunni guards, Shiite militias, and government forces all operating in a climate of mistrust in the absence of any meaningful political solutions. It also highlights the long-term limitations of the US surge strategy, credited for stemming sectarian bloodshed and dramatically reducing violence over the past year.

"It's very dangerous, what's happening.... If this is not handled right, it could really backfire," says Joost Hiltermann, an Istanbul-based analyst with the International Crisis Group. "These groups are truly antagonistic. If the Americans pull out, they will start fighting each other unless there is political accommodation and power-sharing arrangements at the top."

The picture is further muddled by the risk that the neighborhood guards may now be infiltrated by Al Qaeda militants, according to a US military commander. The guards have been the target of attacks in recent weeks.

Mr. Hiltermann concedes that it would have been tough for Iraqi security forces to detect the two female suicide bombers, given the social and religious taboos regarding women. The government said that it was doubly difficult because they were mentally disabled and thus unaware of what they were doing, and that the explosives on their bodies were detonated remotely.

But witnesses at the Baghdad Jadida market denied this. "There is no security; no one bothers to check those entering the market," says a pigeon vendor who gave his name as Sattar.

The bird bazaar in Baghdad Jadida is across the highway from the main market, which is ringed with large blast walls separated by openings where members of the Mahdi Army, the militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, search all entrants. The militia has emerged as the dominant force in the now mainly Shiite neighborhood.

The national police, assailed in the past for being infiltrated by Shiite militias, mans an observation tower and a checkpoint nearby.

Back at Al-Fadhil, Qaisi is saluted with great deference by residents and shopkeepers. Graffiti praises Saddam Hussein and calls the guards "heroes and lions."

Qaisi, in leather jacket and cargo pants, grips a crackling walkie-talkie. Two bodyguards tail him. Bullet-riddled shops and damaged buildings are a stark reminder that until last fall this area saw the worst fighting between Sunni insurgents on one side and government forces and Shiite militias.

Qaisi proudly recounts how his men repelled government and US forces over the years. He blames the brutality toward Shiites in Al-Fadhil as well as their forced displacement on three Al Qaeda linked militants who, he said, have since been killed or arrested.

"The Americans asked to be our friends because we were the winners," he says, adding that the agreement he has with US forces precludes Iraqi forces from entering. No government forces can be seen. Qaisi's guards check every vehicle and person entering Kifah Street.

A white banner mourns the death of Al-Fadhil resident Mustapha Shaker in Friday's Ghazil bombing. "He had gone to buy birds," says his friend Yahya Walid. "If our folks were in charge, the bombing could have been prevented."

At the end of Kifah Street, a wall has been built to separate Al-Fadhil from the Shiite neighborhoods of Sadriya, Qanbar Ali, and Abu Saifyen. "We can't go beyond that," says Qaisi. "I can't guarantee your security there."