Bombers are back on the streets of Baghdad and criminality is rising, writes Michael Jansenin Amman
ON THE sixth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to US forces Iraq remains a country in conflict. Bombers killed 45 people and wounded scores in Shia quarters of the capital on Monday and Tuesday.
Basra and the cities of the south are comparatively safe, but Baghdad is still afflicted with sectarian violence and Mosul and Kirkuk in the north are centres of Arab-Kurdish strife.
Baghdad’s bombers have reappeared for several reasons. According to one commentator on Iraqi security, attacks had fallen in the first place partly because the ethnic cleansing of most of the city’s Sunnis had lowered sectarian tensions and violence.
The pre-war population breakdown of the city was roughly 50 per cent Sunni and 50 per cent Shia.
Today it is 10-15 per cent Sunni and 85-90 per cent Shia. However, resentful men who have lost family members, homes and livelihoods are believed to have joined violent groups in order to wreak vengeance on hapless Shias.
The Shia-dominated government’s decision to recruit fighters of the Sunni Awakening Councils, Sahwa, into the armed forces or provide them with jobs in the civil service has, according to this commentator, prompted some to make common cause with al-Qaeda and violent opposition groups.
Furthermore, Sahwa fighters who were once members of, or are familiar with al-Qaeda cells in their home districts, are no longer co-operating with the police, who cannot identify and pre-empt attacks by these elements.
Iraqi media reports suggest that Baathists determined to bring down the Shia-dominated government are regrouping. Since this week’s bombings have involved vehicles detonated by remote control rather than suicide bombers, the modus operandi of al-Qaeda, there is speculation that Baathists are responsible, particularly since the bomb attacks coincided with the anniversary of the capture of Baghdad, the final act in the toppling of the Baathist regime.
An Iraqi informant fresh from Baghdad said that “criminality” was rising due to the dismissal by the Ministry of Interior of hundreds of policemen and soldiers accused of membership of al-Qaeda or of corruption. Many have formed or joined criminal gangs.
“These people are not trained to do [work other than with weapons] so they resort to kidnapping for money and robbery,” he said. The municipal police – largely confined to their own home sect-based quarters – find it difficult to deal with bombers and criminals who range freely across the city, he added.
While security has improved, the activities of political bombers and criminals mean Iraqis still “do not know whether they will return safely once they leave their homes”, an Iraqi woman living in Amman observed.
“We Iraqis don’t know what we are doing, what our future will be. We want a normal standard of life. We want schooling and medical care for our children and elderly. We want clean water and electricity all day. People have to programme their days by when they have electricity [now 8-12 hours in 24]. Using generators or buying electricity from neighbourhood providers can cost $600 a month. Everything is very expensive.
“Middle aged people don’t want to struggle, the young can endure. The infrastructure has not been built since 2003.
“In Kuwait in 1991 [following the US war to oust Iraqi forces from the emirate] they put mobile generators on the streets and fixed the infrastructure in no time.”
According to this woman, politicians who have returned from exile are interested only in “enriching themselves”.
The Iraqi source from Baghdad said Iraqi voters will cast their ballots for “anyone who provides security, electricity, clean water and jobs”. Although the influence of clerics has waned, he said many Iraqis would listen to those who recommend politicians likely to deliver these demands. While middle-aged and older Iraqis did not identify each other by religious or ethnic affiliation, “the younger generation is accustomed to Sunni-Shia differences”.
Iraqis do not want to be named when speaking to the press about conditions in their country. This used to be the case under the regime of Saddam Hussein and remains true today. Baghdad Sahwa leader Adel Mashandani was detained recently after commenting on the Shia government’s close ties to Iran. Other charges were levelled against him after he spoke out.