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Iraq

Iraqi cleric Sadr scales back his militia

2018-06-29

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... , whose political bloc came first in a May parliamentary election, said on Thursday he was scaling back his militia to strengthen the incoming government and its security forces. The holy man’s list won the most seats in an election marred by low turnout and allegations of fraud. He is currently embroiled in negotiations with the heads of other blocs over forming the next government, in which he is expected to play a leading role. Sadr said in a handwritten order published on his website that his Saraya al-Salam (Peace Companies) militia must disband in all cities except for the capital Baghdad and the cities of Karbala and Samarra, both homes to holy Shi’ite shrines. Call for nationwide disarmament The holy man had earlier this month called for a nationwide disarmament campaign after an arms cache went kaboom! in his stronghold district of Sadr City in Baghdad, killing 18 people. Political opponents said the cache had belonged to his militia. His Thursday order called on his men to store arms in a manner that protects civilians. All the militia's leaders except those in the three named cities were prohibited from "activities on the ground’. Sadr said the militia was also now banned from conducting any operation outside Iraq, and all weapons received from the government and its security forces were to be returned. Like most Iraqi politicians, Sadr has consistently maintained a powerful militia. In the past he has mobilized tens of thousands of followers to protest against government policies and has been seen as a wild card in Iraq’s turbulent politics, which is often driven by sectarian interests. His militia, once known as the Mahdi Army ... an Iranian fifth column masquerading as an Iraqi militia ... , staged two violent uprisings against US occupation forces after their invasion of Iraq and toppling of Saddam Hussein. Iraqi and US officials described him at the time as the biggest security threat in Iraq.

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Iraq

Sadr rebelled against the Shiite parties and allied with the Communists

2018-02-09

[Sotal Iraq - via Google Autotranslate] The alliance of the Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr with the Communist Party and civil movements is not only a rebellion against the Shiite parties that hold its grip on power, but also a rebellion in a stereotypical form that has long regarded communists as infidels who must be fought. The leader of the Sadrist movement Moqtada al-Sadr exceeded all expectations and triggered a new surprise by declaring alliance with leftist and civilian parties in the upcoming legislative elections to add to his record of surprises over the past few years, most notably the exit from the Iranian abaya and the rebellion against the ruling Shiite parties, The idea of ​​establishing an armed militia "Mehdi Army" with the support of Tehran after 2003. Sadr decided to enter the next elections by establishing a new party called "integrity" instead of "the free" and approaching leftist and liberal parties in an electoral alliance called "Going towards reform", a slogan adopted by Sadr when he decided to join the peaceful demonstrations led by the party Communist and civil movements for three years.

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Iraq

BBC: The situation in Iraq as of 21. June

2014-06-22

This is the kind of thing the BBC do very well. Lots of maps, photos and video at the link. Text mostly stripped of stuff we already know. [BBC] Thousands of Shia militia loyal to the powerful holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010. He spends most of his time in Iran, safely out of the line of fire, where he's learning to be an ayatollah... have paraded through the streets of Storied Baghdad, raising sectarian tensions amid continued fighting in areas of Iraq. The holy man, whose Mahdi Army

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Iraq

Iraqs Sadr meets supporters in Baghdad

2011-03-10

[Asharq al-Aswat] Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr held talks in Storied Baghdad on Tuesday on what was only his second visit to the Iraqi capital since the US-led invasion of 2003, aides said. Sadr, who returned to Iraq in January after four years in voluntary exile in Iran, visited the Shiite shrine district of Kadhimiyah in the north of the capital and his stronghold of Sadr City in the east, the aides said. Sadr, who lives in the central shrine city of Najaf, also held talks with Storied Baghdad-based members of his party's politburo, they added. The firebrand holy man led repeated uprisings against US-led troops in central and southern Iraq before ordering a halt to the activities of his Mahdi Army ... an Iranian fifth column masquerading as an Iraqi militia ... militia in 2008. His movement won 39 of the 325 seats in parliament in a general election in March last year and has six ministers in the national unity government. Sadr's backing was considered a key factor in Prime Minister Nuri Maliki's successful fight to retain his job in a protracted battle for the premiership last year.

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Iraq

Model security shows mainstream move of Iraq's Sadr

2011-01-08

Anti-U.S. Shi'ite holy man Moqtada Tater al-Sadr's ... the Iranian catspaw holy man who was 22 years old in 2003 and was nearing 40 in 2010... security detail has a disciplined quality far removed from his old Mahdi Army ... an Iranian fifth column masquerading as an Iraqi militia ... militia, hinting at his evolution toward the mainstream that could help stabilize Iraq. Likely during his time in the Land of the Medes and the Persians he was imbibing lessons on how to organize a hezbollah along with his lessons on how to be an ayatollah when he grows up. Hopefully he was getting his teeth fixed, too. Sadr, who led two uprisings against the U.S. military and demands its withdrawal, seems eager to shed the image of a firebrand and appear a statesman as his movement assumes a new, powerful role in Storied Baghdad's coalition government, analysts say. I'm guessing he's gonna model himself more on Hassan Nasrallah, setting his organization up as a state within a state. Bearded men in black shirts and grey suits with pistols strapped to their belts, and others dressed like professional mercenaries, have knitted a tight circle around him since his return Thursday after years of voluntary exile in Iran. See that? His own personal Hezbullies. Their sophistication is a far cry from the AK-47-wielding young Shi'ite fighters who made up Sadr's Mahdi Army, ... an Iranian fifth column masquerading as an Iraqi militia ... which was behind much of the sectarian violence unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and battled U.S. troops. He knew what he wanted to do, he just didn't know how to do it. He was all mouth and little organizational skill, able to recruit the cannon fodder but not to use them to any effect other than to oppress the common folk. "When Sadr was an untamed rabble-rouser, he lived in Najaf with unsophisticated, informal networks protecting him," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at Queen Mary College, University of London. "The fact that he's (now) got this highly visible, highly trained and disciplined security network is both an indication of his maturity and growing sophistication."

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Iraq

Mookie's supporters rally in Iraq

2010-10-09

BAGHDAD - Hundreds of followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took to the streets in Iraq on Friday to show support for their leader’s decision to nominate Nuri al-Maliki as prime minister for a second term. Maliki won the nomination with support from Sadr’s movement which previously opposed a second term for the incumbent. Once Sadr’s foe, Maliki sent troops to crush Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia in 2008. Mookie apparently is capable of playing a much deeper game than he previously demonstrated ... More than a thousand Sadr supporters demonstrated in Iraq’s southern city of Basra on Friday, while in the holy city of Kerbala, hundreds more took to the streets to push for the speedy formation of a government. In Baghdad’s Sadr City — the Shia cleric’s stronghold in the capital — hundreds rallied after Friday prayers in support of their leader. All the rallies were peaceful and orderly. “The leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, made his decision for us,” Hassan Abdul-Hussain, a 36-year-old government employee, told Reuters. “We obey it fully and without controversy because we all know he looks out for Iraq and Iraqis.”

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Iraq

Sadrists hold vote to choose Iraq prime minister

2010-04-03

[Al Arabiya Latest] Supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stood in long lines on Friday to vote their choice for prime minister of Iraq in a two-day referendum that carried no government sanction or legal weight. The unusual plebiscite organized by Sadr's political movement, which won about 40 seats in a March 7 parliamentary election and stands to play a kingmaker role in the next government, was intended to determine the public favorite for prime minister after squabbling among election winners. The ballot carried five names including current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his top election rival, former prime minister Iyad Allawi, whose Iraqiya coalition edged Maliki's State of Law bloc 91 seats to 89 in the election. Neither won enough for a majority in the 325-seat parliament and the tight race foretold weeks or months of potentially divisive negotiations to form a new government. "According to political developments, a mistake might occur in choosing the next prime minister, and for that I think it is in the (national) interest to assign it directly to the people," Sadr, who is living and studying in Shiite neighbor Iran, said in a statement read to his followers before Friday prayers. Sadr's political movement announced the vote just two days ago and although all Iraqis were invited, it was unclear how widely the ballots were available beyond Sadrist strongholds. Encircled by Iraqi soldiers in Sadr City, the Baghdad slum where Sadr's support is probably strongest, worshipers lined up at a chaotic tent at the movement's office. They scrambled to cast votes before the call to prayer, dictating their choices to party poll workers who wrote the votes on ballots. The forms carried the names of five candidates; Maliki, Allawi, vice president Adul Abdul-Mehdi, former prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Jaafar Mohammed al-Sadr, a Sadr relative, plus a write-in space for a candidate of the voter's choice. The voting was scheduled to last through Saturday. Sadrists ran as part of the Iraqi National Alliance, a Shiite coalition that placed third with 70 seats. An alliance of two powerful Kurdish parties finished fourth with 43 seats. INA officials had said they were negotiating an alliance with Maliki's State of Law bloc. A combination of the two would have 159 seats, nearly enough to form a majority in parliament. But the Sadrists object to a second term for Maliki, who sent government troops against Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.

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Iraq

Iraqi Army blames deadly blasts in Baghdad on Saddam loyalists

2009-05-02

[Beirut Daily Star: Region] The Iraqi Army on Thursday blamed a wave of near-simultaneous bombings that killed more than 50 people in mostly Shiite districts of Baghdad on loyalists of Saddam Hussein's toppled regime. "This series of bombings was supposed to be carried out on the 28th, the birthday of Saddam Hussein," Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta told AFP, referring to the former dictator executed in December 2006. "But because of the security measures that we took that day they could not carry it out," he said, adding that the attacks appeared to be aimed at sowing "sectarian strife" between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Three car bombs on Wednesday tore through markets in the sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City, the main stronghold of the anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr which was ruled by his Mehdi Army militia until a major US and Iraqi operation there last year. At least 51 people were killed and scores were wounded in the attacks, according to medics on Thursday. Another seven people were killed in four additional blasts in Shiite and mixed neighborhoods elsewhere in the capital, according to security officials. Atta said security forces were able to defuse another six car bombs set to go off at the same time. The attacks were reminiscent of the coordinated bombings of crowded Shiite areas during the height of Iraq's sectarian fighting in 2006, which provoked the kidnappings and executions of thousands of Sunni men by Shiite militias. A statement by the US military said the bombings had been meant to trigger the kind of confessional strife that swept Iraq in the wake of the 2003 US invasion that deposed Saddam and his Baathist regime. "These attacks are an attempt to incite sectarian violence, but the Iraqi people have shown that they are rejecting this bankrupt philosophy," it said. The Islamic Party - the largest Sunni party in Parliament - issued a statement Thursday condemning the attacks as a "criminal operation aimed at sowing terror and sectarian strife." "The Islamic Party strongly condemns this cowardly terrorist act and emphasizes that this new wave of explosions is a great conspiracy led by the enemies of Iraq," it said. Wednesday's attacks came a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hailed the arrest of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, said to be the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and blamed for a wave of attacks targeting Shiites and security forces. Maliki referred to Baghdadi as "the head of evil, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq," and said he had ties to the followers of Saddam's regime. The Shiite premier's Dawa party said in a statement that Wednesday's attacks came in response to Baghdadi's detention. "These cowardly bombings carried out by the remnants of the Baath party and Al-Qaeda terrorists are a reaction to the arrest of the emir [commander] of terrorism in Iraq," it said, referring to Baghdadi. Iraq's Parliament meanwhile approved a measure proposed by Sadrist MPs to summon senior security officials for questioning regarding the blasts, a parliamentary official told AFP. Those set to be called in for questioning include Iraqi Army leaders responsible for guarding Sadr City. Parliament has not yet set a date for the questioning. Security has improved dramatically since US and Iraqi forces began allying with local tribes and former insurgents in late 2006 to combat Al-Qaeda and other militias, but attacks are still common. April has been the bloodiest month since the start of the year, with over 300 people killed and over 700 wounded, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security officials.

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Iraq

Baghdad - Six car bombings in four hours killed 48 people

2009-04-29

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six car bombings in four hours killed 48 people and wounded 81 in various Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry. In a separate incident, five people were killed and three wounded by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad, a ministry official said. Most of the deaths came when three car bombs parked at separate but nearby marketplaces exploded in quick succession in the eastern Baghdad Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, killing at least 45 people and injuring at least 68, the ministry official said. Three other car bombings followed. Two of those, outside a Shiite mosque in the Hurriya district of northern Baghdad, killed three people and wounded eight. The bombs exploded in close succession shortly before 9 p.m. (2 p.m. ET). A third a few hours earlier injured at least five civilians in a predominantly Shiite area of southwestern Baghdad, according to the ministry. Wednesday's series of bombings echoed an incident earlier this month, when seven car bombs detonated within about four hours. The U.S. military blamed al Qaeda in Iraq for what it called coordinated attacks. Sadr City is a heavily populated Shiite area, with an estimated 2.5 million people packed into a 25-square-kilometer area. The district was a stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army, but most of the fighters went underground after fierce fighting in April 2008. In a seventh bombing Wednesday night, at least five people died and three were wounded south of Baghdad, a ministry official said. A roadside bomb struck a minibus in Hor Rajab, a predominantly Sunni area on the southern outskirts of Baghdad. The casualties were all civilians, the official said. There has been an uptick in bombings and attacks in recent weeks, mainly targeting Shiites and Shiite areas. Last Thursday and Friday, five suicide bombings, as well as other attacks in Baghdad and Diyala province, left almost 160 people dead and 275 wounded. Earlier Wednesday, U.S. and Iraqi troops were ambushed in northern Iraq, according to Maj. Derrick Cheng, spokesman for the U.S. military's Multi-National Division-North. The troops were on a joint mission in Riyadh, southwest of Kirkuk, where coalition forces are working with local police to provide micro-grants to small businesses, Cheng said. Several individuals attacked the troops using at least one grenade and small arms fire, he said. Cheng said two of the attackers reportedly were killed and another two were wounded. A woman reportedly was injured by shrapnel from the grenade, but was treated and released, he said. A soldier was reported wounded but was in good condition, Cheng said. So far this month, 15 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, compared to nine in March -- most of those in non-combat-related incidents. March's death toll was the lowest monthly toll for the U.S. military since the war began 2003. The Riyadh incident comes at a time of heightened tension between the U.S. military and the Iraqi government, after two Iraqis were killed during a military raid south of Baghdad on Sunday. Iraqi state TV reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused U.S. troops of violating the security agreement between the two countries with the raid in Wasit province.

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Iraq

Influence wanes for Tater's Tots

2008-11-25

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Much of the giant square where followers of Moqtada al-Sadr gather in their thousands on Fridays to pray is now taken up by an Iraqi army base, surrounded by concrete blast walls and watchtowers. For perhaps the first time since the fiery cleric burst onto the political scene by leading two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, it is now possible to imagine a future for Iraq in which he plays only a limited political role. On a weekday, the square in Baghdad's Sadr City slum is empty. An Iraqi soldier peers from a spot next to an armored vehicle, parked beneath the gun turrets of the new base, just opposite the headquarters of the young cleric's movement. Inside the building from which they once wielded unrivalled sway over the slum's 2 million people, Sadr's followers gripe about the government troops who arrived six months ago. "They lied to us," bemoans Abu Ammar al-Saadi, a tribal leader whose family holds senior positions in the movement. "The government said 'We just want to enter to arrest some wanted people.' Not to establish bases. And after that they came and built bases in Sadr City." Six months after U.S. and Iraqi government forces drove Sadr's once-feared Mehdi Army militia fighters off the streets in Sadr City and south Iraq, the cleric's movement is hemmed in. Sadr himself has not appeared in public for months and is widely believed to have decamped to Iran. Last year he pulled his cabinet members from the ruling coalition. This year he largely disbanded his Mehdi Army. Together, the two developments mean he now wields neither a share of national political power nor might on the streets. With the signing last week of a pact requiring U.S. forces to leave within three years, the government is now claiming to have achieved Sadr's signature political objective without him. "There is certainly less room" in Iraqi politics for Sadr, said Reidar Visser, a Norwegian historian and expert on southern Iraq's Shi'ite communities. "It does seem as if Sadr is struggling in keeping control of his movement right now."

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Iraq

Iraq's Mehdi Army at crossroads as U.S. scales down

2008-09-22

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Forced off Iraq's streets and with diminished political clout, what anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia do next will be crucial if they are to remain relevant. The rallying cry of the Mehdi Army and Sadr's political movement since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 has been to kick American soldiers out of Iraq. With a 2011 deadline for a U.S. troop withdrawal possibly in sight, Sadr must find another cause to give his movement purpose and cohesion. Sadr has largely frozen the Mehdi Army, which led two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, and has shifted to cultivating the cultural wing of his movement. The cleric has huge support among Iraq's Shi'ite poor, and similar movements in the Middle East have traditionally replaced or bolstered armed struggle with cultural and charitable works that have fed into votes at the ballot box. But the cleric has decided his movement will not compete in upcoming local elections under the Sadr banner. Sadrists will instead join independent candidate groups. The move could be a way of keeping a hand in politics without giving legitimacy to elections held while U.S. forces are still in place. But the move could limit their influence in increasingly powerful provincial councils, where they hold little sway after largely boycotting the last local elections in 2005, and rob them of momentum in national polls due at the end of 2009. Sadrists took part in the previous parliamentary elections, but control only 10 percent of seats. They withdrew their six cabinet ministers from the government in 2007 in protest at Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Sadr's movement is unlikely to survive as a purely cultural and charitable organization with no military or political clout, said Toby Dodge, an Iraq specialist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "They'd disappear almost overnight if they did that. It would go against every model they're copying ... If they don't run (in elections) and demobilize their militia, what's the point of them? What's the unifying ideology?" he said. SADR SLIPPING? Sadr spokesmen say the cleric froze his militia partly to give Baghdad and Washington space to agree a security deal, now in its final stages of negotiation, that is likely to pave the way for a large-scale U.S. troop withdrawal by the end of 2011. "If the agreement has positive points and a defined deadline then I'm sure we will support it," chief Sadr spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi said in an interview at the cleric's headquarters in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf. Ubaidi last month suggested the Mehdi Army would dissolve if the United States withdrew according to a defined timetable. With violence in Iraq at four-year lows, the Pentagon will pull 8,000 soldiers out by February, leaving 138,000 troops. But the Sadr movement will only outline its next move after the U.S. presence ends, not before, Ubaidi said. Meanwhile, rival political groups are consolidating power, while a series of crackdowns by an increasingly assertive Maliki has forced the Mehdi Army from many of its former bastions. Attacks on Shi'ites by Sunni militants, which drove many to Sadr's militia for support, have plunged. Criminal elements among the Mehdi Army's ranks have also frustrated Sadr. "Moqtada may be beginning to feel that the Mehdi Army is becoming more of a liability than an asset," said Reidar Visser, an Iraq expert and editor of the www.historiae.org website. Luwaa Sumaisem, head of the Sadr parliamentary bloc's political committee, said the movement had future political ambitions and wanted to be central in efforts to rebuild Iraq. Focus on the Sadrist cultural wing, which defines itself as an "army of cultural and religious doctrine" that wages jihad on the "western and secular tide," could be considered a political move in preparation for the departure of U.S. forces, he said. "That we don't have political ambitions, that may be for the moment. It's not our priority," he told Reuters. RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY Greater religious authority could be one way Sadr intends to retain relevance. Widely believed to be studying in Iran, Ubaidi said it would not be long before Sadr would enter the ranks of the Marjaiya, or senior Shi'ite Islamic clergy. "The next key step for the Sadrist movement may relate to Sadr's religious status, and in particular whether he is going to make an attempt to act as a scholar with the ability to issue his own fatwas (religious edicts)," Visser said. In Shi'ite-majority Iraq the Marjaiya have huge influence, although frosty ties with Iraq's top Shi'ite clergy mean it is unclear how much weight would be given to Sadr's fatwas. Often ambiguous and sometimes contradictory, many of Sadr's frequent statements give few clues to his thinking. Making few public appearances, Sadr may next appear when the U.S.-Iraqi security deal is signed, Ubaidi said. Until then, the support of at least some of Iraq's Shi'ite poor remains strong. "Of course we hope for no more violence. Look at all these young men," said Abdul-Zahra Darwish, the brother of a slain Mehdi Army fighter as he stood among graves at a Sadrist cemetery in Najaf. "But I am ready to fight and die."

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Iraq

Securing Baghdad with militiamen

2008-09-02

As Washington and Baghdad hammer out an agreement on the future of US troops in Iraq, Crispin Thorold meets some of the Sunni militiamen at the heart of the new security policy. Adhamiyah was once at the heart of the Sunni insurgency but this area has been transformed in the past year. The US forces in this Baghdad district now spend most of their time patrolling rather than fighting. A major shift in security came when local tribesmen began policing the area. The Sons of Iraq - also known as the Tribal Awakening - once fought against the Americans but now they are challenging al-Qaeda. In the heart of Adhamiyah is the Abu Hanifa mosque, one of the most important shrines for Sunni Muslims in Iraq. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein it has also been the scene of several clashes between insurgents and US forces. Now a tribal awakening group mans the nearby checkpoints. The group is heavily armed with an array of weapons. One man has a pistol tucked into his belt. It is cocked, ready to fire in an instant. As we speak to the group they appear nervous and constantly eye the nearby streets. Despite a relative improvement in security, their caution is understandable. "A suicide bomber came here last week," said a senior tribesman. "He was dressed as a woman. He killed my brother and his bodyguards". Fifteen people died in the explosion, which is widely presumed to have been the work of Sunni insurgents sympathetic to al-Qaeda. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, US troops swept into the area to try and restore calm. US soldiers say that as well as combating bombings they have to ease tensions between the ten different tribal awakening groups in Adhamiyah. "Speaking to key leadership personalities and assessing them is critical to what happens inside Adhamiyah," said Lieutenant Eric Kuylman. "It is a lot of people-management. We spend a lot of the day walking on the street to get a picture from the locals. We sit down with the key leaders and from there it is a question of co-ordinating them." There are now more than 100,000 Sons of Iraq across the country, the vast majority of them Sunni. In the medium-term these tribesmen are supposed to be integrated into the Iraqi security forces but that process has been painfully slow. According to a senior coalition source, only 5,189 have been transferred so far. Most of the Sunnis we met in Adhamiyah blame this on the Shia-dominated central government. There is great suspicion of the administration led by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. There are also fears about what will happen when US troops withdraw. "I think that the government will come after us and there will be chaos," said Tahir Abu Ayer. The Adhamiyah security wall is a constant reminder of the recent chaos in Baghdad. Some 4.8km (3 miles) long and 3.7m (12ft) high, this barrier was built by the American military in April 2007 to separate Adhamiyah from nearby Shia neighbourhoods. "They don't come to hurt us and we don't go to their place," said one man. "All of them are from the [Shia militia] the Mehdi Army. "They are dangerous. We don't go there and they don't come to us." As we continue to drive through the heart of Adhamiyah an American sergeant points out the reconstruction that is being carried out. "Back there, there was a wall that they had painted," he said. "Over here on the left and right of the road you can see that it is pretty torn up. What they are trying to do is lay cables to try to get the infrastructure back." However, there is still much work that remains to be done. Rubbish is piled up on the streets and sewage runs through the gutters. There is a constant whir of generators - like so many other areas of Baghdad, Adhamiyah has little electricity. Outside one shop, a group of men had gathered to complain about what they believe is a lack of interest from the central government. "For the last three days we have not electricity in this area," said one man. "The people who are in charge of the area are thieves." When we ask if the slow pace of reconstruction and the lack of services could lead to another round of violence the answer is a resounding yes. As we return to the US base at Camp Apache, we pass through many more checkpoints, all of them manned by groups of fighters from the Sons of Iraq. While these militias wait to be integrated into the Iraqi armed forces, Adhamiyah is being carved up into fiefdoms - something that could mean more violence once the Americans leave.

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