Truth in Iraq is in short supply. The raid on a Shiite mosque complex by Iraqi security forces and US special forces illustrates this. According to the Iraqi authorities, the operation against a terror cell of Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army left 22 dead. The Americans said there had been 16 fatalities. A large hoard of weapons was seized and a kidnapped and tortured government employee was freed. Both denied the mosque itself had been entered, insisting the raid had focused on a nearby building. Worshippers claimed this was untrue. Video footage taken afterward appears to show bloodstains and bullet holes in the mosque itself. A fireman called to the site said he saw a US soldier leaving the mosque.
The same day US forces said they raided an Interior Ministry building and arrested 41 staff guarding a secret prison and seized 17 Sudanese nationals held there. Government sources claimed only ten policemen had been detained and then released when it was realized that the Sudanese were being legitimately held. The Americans have yet to respond and there is no word on the fate of the Sudanese nor what precisely they were doing in Iraq. Even if there is not yet a civil war in Iraq, this is a looking-glass conflict in which nothing is ever quite what it seems and rarely what those involved claim it to be.
The only things that seem apparent from these actions is that the US military, increasingly concerned at the growth of Shiite militias and their influence within the Iraqi police and armed forces, are belatedly trying to clip their wings.
As Iraq’s politicians move into their fourth month of haggling after December’s election, the Sunni community is ever less certain of its safety and influence in the new Iraq. The Sunni insurgents and their Al-Qaeda allies have succeeded all too well in provoking radical Shiites into revenge attacks. The nightly tit-for-tat killings leave a dawn harvest of corpses. The authorities seem powerless and, as the arrest of a local police chief suggests, there are probably death squads operating among the police themselves.
All of this is a far cry from Washington’s claims that a reliable cadre of Iraqi police and army is being created to take over from coalition forces. Indeed one recent “success” story of which President Bush boasted — the US-Iraqi military base at Tal Afar near Mosul was yesterday the scene of a suicide bombing in which over 40 would-be recruits were slain.
All the political spin in the world cannot conceal the bloody chaos into which Washington has plunged the country. Unfortunately only the Iraqis can bring the tragedy to an end. The first and most essential step is to form a working government of national unity.
With every passing day of bloodshed, this task gets harder because inter-communal suspicions become ever deeper. Unless a deal is cut soon, it will probably prove impossible. Then everyone will be the loser.
