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Six Katyusha rockets slammed into the Sunni-majority Adhamiya district, north of Baghdad, at two intervals Thursday evening, according to the Haqq Agency and eyewitness accounts. Two rockets struck at 6:30 p.m., one of which exploded at the commercial Omar bin Abdul Aziz Street, while the second hit the yard of the Abu Hanifa Mosque without exploding. About an hour later, during the call for sunset prayers, four other rockets hit several areas in the district but with no reports of injuries.
Adhamiya, a largely Sunni neighborhood and a stronghold for insurgents, had suffered from regular mortar and rocket attacks thought to be fired by Shi’ite militiamen in surrounding districts, often in retaliation to car bombings by Sunni insurgents against Shi’ite districts and marketplaces. The mortar attacks had ceased throughout most of the U.S.-led Imposing Law security operation, as U.S. and Iraqi troops manned several checkpoints, conducted raids in the area and occupied a long-abandoned police station in the center of the district, residents said.
The attacks came as the U.S. military announced that it is building a three-mile concrete wall around the troubled district, and two others in western Baghdad, to “break the cycle of sectarian violence.” Residents fear the wall would isolate their neighborhood even further from the rest of the capital and would create a fortress for extremist Sunni groups that are wreaking havoc in their area. Recently, there have been accounts of Al-Qaeda presence and activity in Adhamiya, and random executions of Sunni civilians on the streets for the most absurd reasons (such as wearing shorts, smoking, listening to music, or having a satellite dish, for example) have become a common daily scene, residents say. Others say the militant groups are the same homegrown insurgents but that they have just picked up a new label – Al-Qaeda – and started a vicious campaign to terrorize the population. This is an account today by an Iraqi blogger in Adhamiya on Al-Qaeda activity.
U.S. forces engaged with Mahdi Army militiamen in the Bayya’ district, south of Baghdad, reportedly after they were attacked by small-arms fire from the nearby Ali Al-Bayya’ mosque in the Shi’ite dominated district just before Friday prayers. Eyewitnesses reported that Mahdi Army militiamen had attacked and occupied two Sunni mosques, the Kawthar and Rahman, killing one guard and wounding several people as they were preparing to attend the Friday prayers. The militiamen came from the Sadr bureau in ‘Ishreen Street, residents said. U.S. troops then interfered and chased the militiamen to the area around the Ali Al-Bayya’ mosque and called for helicopter support, according to a U.S. military report. Helicopters opened fire during the clash outside the mosque and killed two militants.
The Sadrist Nahrain Net website quotes eyewitnesses who said U.S. helicopters fired missiles against the Shi’ite mosque during Friday prayers, killing five civilians and wounding seven others, adding that Iraqi and U.S. troops left the wounded civilians at the scene. The website did not mention the alleged attacks by Mahdi militiamen against the nearby Sunni mosques, but described the attack as “part of a series of U.S. attacks against Shi’ite mosques and husseiniyas in Baghdad since the start of the Imposing Law security operation amid silence from the Iraqi government, and the intentional targeting and assassination of dozens of Shi’ite civilians in Shi’ite areas and the detention of hundreds others.”
The imam and preacher of the Rahman mosque in Basrah, who speaks for the Fadhila Islamic Party, said during Friday prayers that recent demonstrations against the governor had “political motives” behind them, according to Al-Melaf Press. Muqtada Al-Sadr had called on his followers to demonstrate against the Basrah governor, Mohammed Misbah Al-Wa’ili, a Fadhila Party member, and several thousands protested Tuesday under the banner of an unknown movement called “Jamahir Al-Basra” (the people of Basrah). The Fadhila Party holds the governor position in Basrah and dominates the governorate council and police force, and is accused by rival Shi’ite political groups (mainly Sadrists and SCIRI) of corruption and involvement in illicit oil smuggling activities.
The Rahman mosque preacher said that Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Ya’qubi, the Fadhila Party leader, regards the demonstrations and recent developments in Basrah as “punishment to the Fadhila Party for withdrawing from the United Iraqi Alliance in parliament,” and Fadhila MP Basim Sharif said the preacher’s statements reflects the official position of the party on the demonstrations.
SCIRI’s Buratha News Agency reports that Sayyid Sadr Al-Din Al-Qubanchi, imam and preacher of the Friday prayers in holy Najaf, called for “cleansing Iraqi parliament from followers of the Ba’ath Party and the former regime, and to execute terrorists who work with them in the same locations where they have committed terrorist acts.” Al-Qubanchi, a SCIRI member, said that regional countries act as if occupation is the only problem in Iraq, disregarding the major political improvements over the last four years, such as the constitutional referendum and the formation of a representative Iraqi government and parliament. Al-Qubanchi also denied that there is a Sunni-Shi’ite struggle in the country, describing it instead as a conflict between Iraqis and “Takfiris” and that the only targets are Iraqis.
Sheikh Abdul Mahdi Al-Karbala’i, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, warned during his Friday prayers sermon in the holy city of Karbala from “bloody reprisals by citizens if bombings continue to harvest the lives of hundreds in Baghdad.” Sistani’s representative was commenting on the massive suicide bombings in the Shi’ite districts of Sadriya and Sadr City Thursday in which over 200 people were killed and over 250 wounded. Al-Karbala’i said that if “such atrocities by terrorists are continued without deterrents, then it could lead to uncontrolled reprisals by citizens, plunging the capital into another cycle of revenge attacks.
The Islamic Army in Iraq, a key Sunni insurgent group, called for a political program that unifies the “Mujahideen and politicians” and that respects diverse viewpoints and strategies in the Sunni community, in an editorial published in the April issue of Al-Fursan magazine, the insurgent group’s periodical publication. “It is unavoidable for the Sunni community – whether politicians or Mujahideen – to unite their word, because they are a shield for each other,” the editorial said. The Islamic Army had recently clashed with Al-Qaeda in several governorates outside of Baghdad, a sign of deepening rifts between Al-Qaeda and other Sunni insurgent groups and tribes. The insurgent group had also called on Al-Qaeda leaders to reign in its militants after they started attacking insurgent groups that have not pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq.
Sot Al-Iraq reports that U.S. and Iraqi troops detained 45 suspected insurgents during a raid at the Fadhiliya village, west of Tala’far, Friday. Eyewitnesses had said that insurgents distributed leaflets in the northern Turkmen city last week warning Sunnis from entering Shi’ite districts because they might be attacked with chlorine-laden car bombs. Iraqi army and police forces had clashed with Sunni insurgents Thursday after over 40 mortar rounds hit the Sada area in the city. Seven suspected insurgents were killed in the clashes and dozens arrested, according to Sot Al-Iraq.
