Southern Iraq's peace may be latest victim of Shiite militias

BASRA, Iraq — Southern Iraq, long touted as a peaceful region that's likely to be among the first areas returned to Iraqi control, is now dominated by Shiite Muslim warlords and militiamen who are laying the groundwork for an Islamic fundamentalist government, say senior British and Iraqi officials in the area.

The militias appear to be supported by Iranian intelligence or military units that are shipping weapons to the militias in Iraq and providing training for them in Iran.

Some British officials believe the Iranians want to hasten the withdrawal of U.S.-backed coalition forces to pave the way for Iran-friendly clerical rule.

"We get an idea that [military training] courses are being run" in Iran, said Lt. Col. David Labouchere, who commands British units in the province of Maysan, north of Basra. "People are training on the other side of the border and then coming back."

British military officials suspect that the missile that was used to shoot down a British helicopter over Basra on May 6 came from Iran. Five British soldiers died.

"We had intelligence suggesting five surface-to-air missile systems being brought over from Iran only seven days before it went down," said Maj. Rob Yuill, a British officer based in Basra.

Yuill said that the information suggested that the missiles were destined for the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Bassem al-Samir, a senior official in the Sadr office in Basra, denied that his organization was involved in the attack.

American military officials in Baghdad often point to the relatively low number of attacks against British soldiers in southern Iraq as proof that much of the country is stable.

Last month, however, at least 200 people were killed in Basra, almost all of them by militia violence, according to an Iraqi Defense Ministry official there.

A week with British troops in Maysan and Basra provinces and three additional days of reporting in the city of Basra made it clear that Iraqis here are at the mercy of Shiite militia death squads and Iran-friendly clerics who have imposed an ever-stricter code of de facto Islamic law.

The city of Basra has largely come under the control of Shiite clerics, who have banned alcohol sales. A woman without a headscarf is a rare sight. Record shops have been replaced with stores selling Quranic recordings. It's difficult to purchase chess or backgammon sets; the games are frowned upon by hard-line clerics.

Already, there are signs that neighboring Sunni countries are pumping resources to small Sunni factions in Basra to combat Iranian influence, said a senior Iraqi Ministry of Defense official in Basra. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he feared for his life. "Saudi Arabia is trying to counter the rising power of Iran in Basra by giving money and weapons to fanatical Sunni groups operating there," he said.

In much the same way that Kurdish leaders and militia units in the north have made control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk a top priority for their region, Shiites have identified Basra as the economic engine of Iraq's Shiite south. Basra is near Iraq's largest oil fields and is home to the only shipping port in Iraq.

While there are many signs that Iran is backing the Shiite push for control of Basra, it's not clear to what extent the Iranian government is formally involved, said Brig. Gen. James Everard, who commands the British brigade in Basra.

"Do we see weapons technology that has Iranian hallmarks on it? Yes, we do," he said. "Is it freelance work by Iranians or is it official policy? I don't know."

Some British officers also believe that Iran is working through Iraq's Shiite-dominated central government.

Iraq's Interior Ministry sent a letter this month ordering Basra's police chief to hire or promote 50 men with direct ties to one of Iraq's largest Shiite militias, the Badr Organization, according to Yuill, who said he'd reviewed the document.

The letter was signed by Bayan Jabr, the then-interior minister, who has ties to Badr. The Iranian-backed Badr Organization is the armed wing of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the most powerful Shiite political parties in the country.

Yuill said that Jabr had on several occasions in the past year directed the police chief to stack the ranks of the police with Badr recruits. Jabr was recently named finance minister. A new interior minister has yet to be named.

"My gut feeling is he [Jabr] was trying to improve the Iranian power base, probably with the hope of creating a separate, almost Iranian state in Iraq," Yuill said. "A lot of the people I've talked to in the chain of [Iraqi police] command with militia links are known to have ties to Iranian intelligence."

British officials accuse Iraqi politicians in Basra of using those police as death squads. A British Ministry of Defense political adviser said that the provincial governor uses officers from the police criminal investigations unit as hit men.

"They're his thugs; they enforce his power," said Al Pennycock, the adviser at the British Army brigade headquarters in Basra. "There are a number of individuals in the police who have been linked to assassinations, to killings, to extortions. It's hard to link it to one overlord, but the governor has very clear links to these elements."

British commanders charged with securing far southern Iraq say they hope that the political process will soften the militias. The militias' route could be similar to that of the Irish Republican Army, which many of them fought against.

"At the moment we're just watching the dogfight. The Iraqis are competing for power, and as the local commander, I'm very reluctant to interfere," Everard said.

Everard emphasized that his men wouldn't allow bloodshed to engulf the city, but he said that he has little choice but to accept the militias.

"I think there's a perception ... sometimes that the people of Basra and the militias are separate," he said. "Actually, the people of Basra and the militia are the same thing."

Furat al Shara, the head of the Supreme Council's Basra office, said the way toward peace in southern Iraq is simple: Accept that there will be an Islamist government that will fall short of Iranian theocracy but will be nothing like Western-style democracy.

U.S. and British officials "need to understand that the majority of Iraqi people believe in Islam," al Shara said. "We do not want a secular government."

He added: "Standing against this current will only cause them problems."