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| Shiite pilgrims, arriving in Baghdad Tuesday to pay tribute to Imam Musa al-Kadhim, touched the entrance to his shrine. Sam Dagher   Shiite pilgrimage |
Anti-Saudi tide rises in Iraq
Iraq's leaders use a Shiite holiday to shift attention from Iran to its Sunni neighbors.
from the August 9, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Iraqi Shiite exaggeration?
Several Saudi experts who track fatwas online denied the claims of the most recent one regarding Shiite holy sites. Ayed al-Dosari, a contributor to the United Arab Emirates-based Saha bulletin board, known for its extremist Sunni views, posted an article Wednesday calling the Iraqi claims "a lie" to "stoke the flames of discord."
Some analysts charged Iraq's Shiite politicians with trying to deflect from intense US pressure on Iran regarding its alleged support of extremist militias in Iraq responsible for the death of US troops.
Nibras al-Kazimi, an analyst reached in Istanbul,Turkey, says that the stepped-up anti-Saudi stance reflects frustration with what some see as Saudi Arabia's standoffish attitude toward the influx of its citizens to fight in Iraq.
"It's partly overreacting, and Saudi bashing will build political capital for some," says Mr. Kazimi, who is a visiting scholar with the Washington-based Hudson Institute. "But there is also an element of vilifying the Saudis and picking a fight because people have had enough."
A senior US military officer speaking under the condition of anonymity told the Los Angeles Times that Saudi nationals compose 45 percent of foreign fighters in Iraq who actively target US forces and that 50 percent of Saudi militants come to Iraq as suicide bombers.
But Saudi-based analyst Adel al-Toraifi has a different take: "I think it is radical Shiite elements loyal to Iran and Syria who are doing this to blame the Saudis so as to take the pressure off themselves from the Americans."
On Wednesday, US and Iraqi forces killed at least 30 militiamen that were facilitating the transport of explosives into Iraq from Iran and sending Iraqis to Iran for "terrorist training," said the US military. Twelve other members of what the US calls "Special Groups" were arrested in a overnight raid in Sadr City, the Shiite slum in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Tehran on Wednesday to discuss security and economic cooperation with Iran. Business, diplomatic, cultural, and religious ties are rapidly deepening between both countries.
Mr. Maliki even vowed Monday to crack down on the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization, an Iranian dissident group once nurtured by Saddam Hussein during his long war with Iran's clerical regime but is now under the protection of US forces in Diyala Province northeast of Baghdad.
One Saudi fatwa allegedly called for the destruction of the mausoleum of Imam Hussein in Karbala, south of Baghdad. The violent death of the third imam and his companions in battle against the caliph's army in AD 680 marked the schism between Sunnis and Shiites. The intensity of the standoff over the centuries tended to track regional political upheaval.
And Iraq authorities are taking the threats seriously, especially in light of the bombing of the twin minarets at the Askariya shrine in Samarra north of Baghdad in June that followed an attack on its dome in February 2006.
A three-day ban on vehicle traffic starting Wednesday has been imposed in Baghdad with extra checkpoints springing up all over the city.
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