The Iraqi Rabita speculates that the Mahdi Army was implicated in the assassination attempt, with the possible knowledge of PM Maliki, especially since Abdul Mahdi had announced his willingness to take Maliki’s position if he were to be deposed by the U.S. for his incompetence. Abdul Mahdi’s bodyguards were cursing Sadrists after the bombing, according to an uncorroborated eyewitness account from the scene. The Rabita also quotes “informed sources from Najaf” that both SCIRI and the Da’wa Party are competing for U.S. blessings and acceptance by giving the names of their opponents to the U.S. military.
The Al-Badeel Al-Iraqi website reports that senior commanders of the Islamic Army in Iraq, the Jaish Al-Mujahideen and the 1920 Revolution Brigades were killed in the car bombing that targeted a mosque in Habbaniya in the Anbar Governorate two days ago. Ayad Al-Dulaimi, Khalid Abdullah Al-Khalifawi and Abu Al-Waleed Al-Mar’awi from the Islamic Army and Aswad Kamil Al-Falahi and Ahmed Sabah from the 1920 Revolution Brigades were all killed in the explosion. Sheikh Mohammed Al-Mar’awi, the imam of the mosque, had criticized Al-Qaeda for targeting American troops in the vicinity of civilian areas, according to the website. During the last Friday prayer sermon, he said that kidnapping a young girl to force her father to surrender is “not the behavior of mujahideen,” referring to Al-Qaeda intimidation tactics against rival armed groups. “Is it courageous for the so-called lions of monotheism to fire rockers at American bases from between the houses of innocent civilians, despite the pleading of women and old ladies, and then the lions flee while American fighters and mortars start bombing the residential areas?” the sheikh had asked his audience during a recent sermon at the mosque. Leaders of the Al-Bu Khaleefa and Al-Bu Mar’ee Dulaim clans had arrived at the scene of the bombing and started cursing Al-Qaeda after witnessing what happened to their clan members. The son of an Al-Bu Nimir clan leader, after seeing torn limbs of women and children, started screaming hysterically, “May God expose the privates of their women and families, like they have done to ours.”
The Haqq Agency reports through anonymous sources inside the Iraqi Parliament that U.S. and Iraqi military officers barred Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and National Security Advisor Muwafaq Al-Rubai’I from entering the Iran department in the new Iraqi Intelligence Agency (the Mukhabarat) during an official tour Monday. The sources said that Maliki and Rubai’I were visiting the Mukhabarat departments, located at the former Workers Union building near the Convention Center in the Green Zone, accompanied by U.S. and Iraqi military officers. Director of Intelligence General Mohammed Abdullah Al-Shahwani and his deputy General Abdul Latif refused to meet with Maliki and Rubai’I, according to the sources. The official delegation toured the departments of telecommunications, reconnaissance and archives, while the Iran department, which former Iraqi intelligence officers recruited by Shahwani and U.S. officers operated, remained closed to inspection.
Sot Al-Iraq reports that British troops detained a Shi’ite cleric in Tannumah, east of Basrah, close to the Iraqi-Iranian border. Eyewitnesses said that a British force arrived at the residence of Sheikh Methaq Al-Battat in Tannumah and detained him with two of his brothers. A statement by British troops in Basrah confirmed that three men were detained but without further details. Sheikh Methaq Al-Battat is a renegade Sadrist cleric with his own private militia, according to Basrah residents. He recently declared himself an Ayatollah and a descendant of the Prophet, drawing criticisms from the Hawza in Najaf. Sources in Basrah say that Al-Battat, 31, was known as a taxi driver before the war but he made a fortune from looting and smuggling operations. He started working for Sadr’s Bureau and began wearing a cleric’s garb and turban. He published a widely circulated pamphlet in Basrah prohibiting activities such as hairdressing, videotaping weddings, mixed social occasions, Cerelac baby cereal, using foreign perfumes, make up or tampons, etc.
The Diwaniya police commander said that 157 “terrorist members of the Jund Al-Samaa’ movement were arrested during raids in the town of Ghammas, southwest of Diwaniya in the Qadisiya Governorate, adding that large caches of weapons and munitions were also confiscated by the police force in the operation. A source in Karbala police had also announced that ten members of the group were detained during security operations in the governorate and that some of the detainees had “documents inciting sectarianism.”
