Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mosul operation enters fourth day

An operation against what Iraqi and US military officials call "al-Qaeda forces" in Mosul has entered its fourth day, amid claims that "indiscriminate arrests" are being conducted in the area.

According to the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), at least 120 former Iraqi army officers have been arrested, as well as students and academics.

The statement released on Wednesday by the AMS comes as Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, arrived in Mosul to "supervise the military operation". The AMS also claims that a number of university professors and students from various areas in Mosul have been detained.

"This ... [operation] clearly indicates that the military campaign has further dimensions than those announced, and that its goal is to crack down on the sons of this governorate [of Mosul] who reject the occupation and its allies, a statement said. "The AMS denounces this brutal operation which aims to liquidate all the city's people who reject the occupiers and their destructive plans."

Deteriorating conditions

Nizar Fahmy, a journalist working in Mosul, told Al Jazeera that the situation on the ground has deteriorated during the operation, to a degree where residents are struggling to obtain basic necessities. The city is under curfew, with only pedestrians allowed out onto the streets during the day. He said: "People have resorted to getting vegetables and fruit from the outskirts of the city - where the first checkpoint leading to Mosul is. "Merchants have been forced to resort to peddling their wares on carts, as they travel to different neighbourhoods." Fahmy also said that security forces have constructed a list of names of so-called "suspects" that are wanted and are conducting house-to house searches based on this list. Al-Qaeda fighters are said to have regrouped in Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh after being pushed out of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, and western Anbar province by US and Iraqi forces. It is unclear how long al-Maliki will stay in Mosul, but his visit is similar to his trip to the southern city of Basra in late March when he oversaw a military operation against fighters loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, a populist Shia leader.

'New phase'

Iraqi security forces backed by the US military launched a "new phase" of operations on Saturday in Nineveh province, which borders Syria and Turkey, the US military said. In February, al-Maliki had announced plans for an operation against al-Qaeda and called on the population to support the security forces to get rid of "terrorists". On Monday, he told parliament his troops had only begun preparatory operations and that a major operation was yet to come. He said: "When this phase of preparation is completed, we will announce the start of the military offensive". Mosul, the capital of Nineveh, 370km north of Baghdad, has been described by the US military as the centre of the fight against al-Qaeda. The city, one of the most dangerous places in the country, has been the scene of many bombings and attacks. On January 23, an explosion at an ammunition dump killed more than 60 people and destroyed dozens of homes. Nineveh's police chief was killed in a suicide bombing when he visited the site of the explosion on the following day.

Via Al Jazeera.


Comment:

The Association of Muslim Scholars is an influential Sunni group that opposes the occupation and the government through non-violent means. Although it does not object to armed resistance in principle, it does believe that attacks against civilians and sectarian violence are against Islamic law, and is thus no great friend of al-Qaeda.

5 comments:

PJ said...

"Although it does not object to armed resistance in principle, it does believe that attacks against civilians and sectarian violence are against Islamic law, and is thus no great friend of al-Qaeda."

It sounds to me like the AMS and Muqtada al-Sadr share the same ideology.

"The Ulema Council had called for calm among its followers in the face of provocations from some Shias. They also accuse neighbouring Shia-dominated Iran of trying to fuel growing religious tensions in the country by reaching out to Moqtada al-Sadr. Sunni clerics in the Muslim Ulema Council became increasingly vocal and teamed up with some influential Shias to oppose the occupation."

link

It seems to me that the AMS is little more than a group of Islamists with a strong anti-West/anti-American bias.

"The AMS denounces this brutal operation which aims to liquidate all the city's people who reject the occupiers and their destructive plans."

Yeah, that's it. Cuz, you see, aQ-I reject the "occupiers" and their "destructive plans," therefore, going after aQ-I and trying to establish a non-sharia compliant code of law = a "brutal operation" indicative of a "military campaign [which] has further dimensions than those announced," namely, to "liquidate" the opposition.

Sergei Andropov said...

What does Muqtada al-Sadr have to do with this?

PJ said...

I'm saying that the AMS' automatic opposition to anything the Iraqi government does, not to mention their hypocrisy when it comes to violence against the Iraqi police and gov't, reminds me of M. al-S.

Basically, I don't trust AMS at all, so I was comparing them to Mr. al-Sadr, since both are anti-American and therefore, anti-Iraqi.

Sergei Andropov said...

Iraq is not a part of the United States of America. I would say that, while his ideology does have a religious component, al-Sadr is primarily an Iraqi nationalist. Also, it's extremely important to remember that just because two people (or groups) dislike us, doesn't mean that they can be lumped together.

PJ said...

Also, it's extremely important to remember that just because two people (or groups) dislike us, doesn't mean that they can be lumped together.

They lumped themselves together when they teamed up!

I could tell right away that there was a familiar tone to the rhetoric voiced by the ulema and al-Sadr, a brief search shows that, indeed, the ulema and al-Sadr are allies.

I'll put up a blog post on this, just in case you don't see this comment.