Gorilla’s Guides has some great reportage and updates on the rioting and death in Karbala, and related fighting and rioting in other cities in the aftermath of the conflict following the attacks near the Imam Hussein shrine.
The latest update (#5) is dated August 29th and here are some highlights at random:
The casualty toll according local hospitals being quoted by the independent Iraki newsagency Aswat Al Iraq (Voices of Iraq) is 42 dead (including 3 of the fighters who battled green zone forces) and 282 wounded. Update: the latest casualty count is 48 dead 384 wounded.The city is still under curfew. Pilgrims are being prevented from entering. Although the doors to the shrines are opened. Many pilgrims from outside Karbala are returning to their homes. Maliki has accused the fighting of being caused by “criminal gangs” some of the local religious authorities have issued a statement blaming groups sponsored by Saudi Arabia Aswat AL Iraq’s report points out that Fatwas from Saudi clerics calling for Husseiniyahs and Mosques of the Shia to be destroyed have caused uproar and protests inside and outside Irak. [emph added]
Team members in Karbala say the smell of death and explosive and flames is everywhere in the city. Corpses are being taken from hotels most of the corpses in the little streets are taken now the corpses in the main streets were removed early. The atmosphere they say is very tense. The sound of sirens is everywhere. There are very heavy contingents of interior ministry police and army troops.Najaf also is under curfew according to team members there.
There is some video available of early rioting on Monday, August 27th. The Guides
Since the Guides are basically picking up Arabic broadcasts as they become available and posting them in the updates, a concise report is very hard to do.
IraqSlogger has reported that Moqtada al-Sadr has given specific instructions that his Mahdi Army is to “stand down” and not join in any fighting.
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Sadr directed all his political offices to be closed for three days, and for his fighters to suspend operations until as late as February. Sadr's order specifically called for Sadrists to stop targeting offices of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), a number of which have been attacked and burned in recent days.One of his senior aides, Sheikh Hazim al-Araji, read the statement on Iraqi television, saying on Sadr's behalf: “I direct the Mahdi Army to suspend all its activities," for a period "not to exceed six months" until it is restructured in a way that helps honour the principles for which it is formed."
Araji also said that the intent of the pause was to "rehabilitate" the organization, which has reportedly broken into factions.
A Sadr aide told AFP that the suspension of activities was to include a cessation of all armed attacks against "the occupiers or any other groups," explaining, "The aim is to reorganize the militia but not to dismantle it. It is also an effort to root out the rogue elements" in the militant group.
Does this imply that al-Sadr realizes his Mahdi Army (JAM) has been infiltrated by outsiders determined to provoke elements within the organization to commit violence as a means of discrediting it? If so, who?
Hmmm..... who would profit from such actions?
Unsurprisingly, LTG James M Dubik, Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, told reporters that the whole thing is al-Sadr’s fault.
"The initial indications confirm that elements from Mahdi Army were behind the recent attacks in Karbala," Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik, commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, told reporters today in Baghdad.The U.S. commander added "the Iraqi Defense Minister is now in Karbala to investigate the incidents []and who was behind it. The minister will take tough decision against security chiefs who failed to keep order in the city."
After the return of the Iraqi minister to Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Dubik pointed out, "we will have a detailed report on who was behind the attacks. A decision will be taken against them and the party behind them will be chased."
An impartial reader might wonder why the Iraqi Defense Minister must conduct an investigation when LTG Dubik has already determined that Sadrist forces were at fault. One can’t help but wonder whether this would have played out the same way if Saudi Arabia were backing al-Sadr.
Gorillas Guides note about the statement of LTG Dubik that:
While Interior ministry sources are saying that there are indications that the events in Karbala were not spontaneous but the result of outsiders plotting to provoke JAM elements to commit sedition by acting as a type of agent provocateur to provoke less disciplined elements of the Mahdi Army to act as they did in the hope of sparking a Shiite Shiite war.)
* Mark From Ireland asks us to note that the "CCTV" noted here is "Closed Circuit TV" and not "CCTV-9", the English language television channel produced in China, an excellent television source for Chinese history and culture that is available on many cable TV outlets, as well as on DirecTV.
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