BADRAH, IRAQ // For a time, six months ago, the area was a fiefdom of the Mahdi Army; they laid down the law, provided security and engaged in some dubious moneymaking enterprises. That was until the Iraqi government and Americans - fearing the Shia militia's growing power and links to Iran - began to move in and set about dismantling it. A series of major military operations were launched nationwide, starting with a spring offensive in Basra. Arrests were made, fighters were killed, and the Mahdi Army militants eventually either fled or faded back into the camouflage of daily life. The authorities claimed victory, insisting that a vital step had been taken in improving Iraq's still murderous security situation.
But for residents in the rural areas around Badrah, a small town on the Iraq-Iran border due east of Baghdad, the removal of the militia has brought with it new problems. Although the Mahdi Army was not universally popular, it had succeeded in establishing some sort of order. Now the militia has gone, that order has begun to disintegrate. Residents described a growing power vacuum into which Sunni Islamic extremists, commonly, if somewhat inaccurately, called al Qa'eda, have now moved.
The Shia Mahdi Army and Sunni militants are sworn ideological enemies, each viewing the other as trying to implement a sectarian genocide. "When the Mahdi Army were here we got some kind of protection," said Abu Muhannad, a 44-year-old farmer. "Now they have gone, al Qa'eda has returned." Shortly after the Shia militia ceded control in the spring, Abu Muhannad's eldest son, 20-year-old Muhannad, was kidnapped while out tending the family's sheep. He has not been seen since and is believed to be dead.
"I got a phone call from someone who said he was from the Islamic State of Iraq [al Qa'eda]," Abu Muhannad said. "They said they had taken my son and killed him because he is a Shia. They did not ask for a ransom, they just said they had executed him." According to Abu Muhannad, a week after the phone call, he was visited by gunmen, who arrived at his isolated home in Toyota pickup lorries, faces covered.
He was in the house with his wife and two-year-old daughter at the time. "We were so afraid I didn't know what to do," Abu Muhannad said. "One of the men found my daughter and kept asking her what her name was. 'Who is this small girl, I wonder what her name is? Is she Zahra or Zainab, I wonder'?" Zainab is a name popular among Shiites. During the height of the sectarian bloodletting in Iraq, in 2006 and 2007 - before Baghdad became an ethically divided city - such questioning was common. Shia extremists would kill anyone named Omar or Uthman. Sunni extremists would kill Hussains and Hassans.
"I begged them not to kill her," Abu Muhannad said. "I asked them to kill me. But they kept returning to the same question, what is your daughter's name. I told them her name was Shahhad." The fighters eventually left the house without harming the girl, stealing some possessions and loading some sheep into the pickups. Mohammad, Abu Muhannad's younger son, had not been at home. "If he had been there I am sure he would be killed," Abu Muhannad said. "We have sent him away to live with relatives in the city because I cannot lose another son."
Although the Iraqi security forces are heavily present at the border and in the towns of Badrah and Baquba, they are not so evident in the rural districts. The problem is exacerbated because Badrah is on an ethnic fault line, where Wasit province, a Shia zone, meets Diyala province, ethnically mixed and scene of some of the worst atrocities this long war has produced. It is still considered a stronghold for Sunni militants.
"It's good to protect the cities, but we need protection in the villages," Abu Muhannad said. "We did get that from the Mahdi Army, and now we have no protection." Some residents of rural areas have abandoned their homes and moved into Badrah for safety. Umm Manaf, a 55-year-old widow lives with her daughter in the town after leaving their house in Jassan, out in the countryside, earlier this year.
"I lost my four sons and 500 head of sheep to al Qa'eda," she said. "One of my sons was kidnapped, and the other three disappeared when they went to pay a ransom to free him." After her sons were gone, Umm Manaf said their property was raided, an armed gang looting the house and stealing what remained from their flock of sheep. "These places had been safer. The Mahdi Army had been there and al Qa'eda were afraid to come because they would be killed.
"Now al Qa'eda is active again. They can just come down from Diyala and there is no one to stop them." Left with nothing, the two women now survive on government handouts. Iraqi lorry drivers are often the best barometers of the security situation; their lives depend on knowing the smallest nuance regarding which areas are safe and which are dangerous. Abu Gazwan al Atbi, a lorry driver from Kut city, said security on the main road from Badrah, a major trade route between Iran and Iraq, was deteriorating.
"The Mahdi Army used to be powerful, and that meant you knew someone was in charge," he said. "It wasn't always easy, but you came to know the fighters and they would let you go about your business without too many problems." Three months ago, shortly after the Iraqi army and police had pushed out the Mahdi Army, a convoy Mr Atbi was driving in came under attack. "We were shot at and my lorry was hit," he said. "I tried to drive on but the lorry was damaged so I had to stop and run into the hills. I had a pistol and was able to hide out for half a day and then managed to get home."
Mr Atbi said Iraqi security forces are unable to provide the same level of on-street protection as the Mahdi Army. "Of course if the Iraqi security forces were strong I would be happy, but they are not, and the Mahdi Army was better." Police from the city of Aziziyah, 60km south-east of Baghdad, have been tasked with helping stop Sunni militants from gaining more control. A roadside bomb on the road to Badrah killed two respected officers, including Aziziyah's police chief, Lt Col Saleh, during one mission.
"The fact is that al Qa'eda activity has increased in the Badrah area," said Major Haider al Mirosh, of the Aziziyah police. "There is a long border to patrol and the cities to protect and there are not enough people to do it. We need more forces in the area." However, Major Mirosh dismissed claims that the Mahdi Army had been providing better security. "It's not true to say that al Qa'eda couldn't attack because of the Mahdi Army.
"It was always the official Iraqi security forces that provided safety in the area, and we will work hard to improve this further." But a local Mahdi Army fighter, Naim al Araji, said the militia's presence had deterred Sunni extremist raids. "Al Qa'eda knew that if they wanted to come down from Diyala and kill Shia it would be hard for them, and they would have to fight us," he said. "Now they know we are not there. The Mahdi Army provided better security than the Iraqi police and army have been able to do."
The 25-year-old militant admitted the Mahdi Army was not innocent - however, he insisted it was better than the alternative. "Mistakes were made and there were criminals inside the Mahdi Army who behaved wrongly," he said. "But the Iraqi government and the Americans moved against us for their own political reasons, not out of concern for Iraq's safety." It appears that another militia, the Sunni Sahwa councils, has now been drafted to reinforce local police. In the last few days, checkpoints have begun to spring up on the roads between Aziziyah and Badrah, manned by the Sunni fighters rather than official security forces. The Sahwa - or awakening - councils are former resistance groups that grew tired of al Qa'eda's brand of religious fanaticism and threw in their lot, at least temporarily, with the Americans.
@Email:nlatif@thenational.ae
