Warring Shiites threaten Iraq unity: Battles in South, Baghdad

[ECH1969]

The intensifying battle between Iraq's strongest Shiite militias -- the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigades -- threatens to destabilize Iraq's oil-rich south and compound chaos in the capital. The outcome also could decide whether Iraq stays whole or breaks up.

The militias have become the largest security threat to a country already rocked by more than three years of attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents on U.S. and Iraqi forces and the Shiite population.

Despite repeated vows to crush the militias, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has resisted U.S. pressure to move against the groups and their roaming deaths squads because he draws most of his support from the politicians who run them.

The Mahdi Army and Badr Brigades have repeatedly clashed since the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein, most recently in the southern city of Amarah. Mahdi militiamen briefly took control of the city this month and fought gun battles with the Badr Brigades-dominated police that killed 31 and wounded dozens.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06302/733551-82.stm

[babylonsister]

1. I have to comment: there is no civil war there, so quit talking about it.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

[bemildred]

2. Gee, who could have predicted this? nt