Are Sadr militias rearming in Iraq's south?

A senior US general said forces loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are rising again in Iraq's south, engaging in intimidation, extortion, and political violence as politicians in Baghdad continue to negotiate over forming a government two months after national elections.

Maj. Gen. Vincent Brooks, in charge of US forces in nine southern provinces, said he has not ruled out involvement by Sadrist paramilitaries or splinter groups in a string of deadly attacks Monday across the south.

“There’s evidence in the past that they’re not at all reticent to intimidate and to murder their fellow Shiite citizens, so I do not exclude them,” said Brooks, commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division, in a telephone interview from Basra.

The violence, which killed 119 Iraqis and wounded almost 300 in 10 separate attacks across the south, included an attack on an imam who has spoken out against the militias and the bombing of a mosque. [Correction: The original article misstated the number killed in the May 10 attacks.]

It will likely be unclear for some time who was behind the attacks – the deadliest in Iraq this year. But the reactivation of the Sadr militia known as the Jaish al-Mahdi (Mahdi Army) and other Shiite militias – not yet seen in Baghdad – would be a key warning sign of a resurgence of sectarian violence.

A recount of a portion of the votes from Iraq's election remains under way and most analysts expect it will still be some months before a government is formed.

“Are people looking to extralegal groups to protect themselves or are they looking to the state? That’s why this four, five, six months of political uncertainty combined with the violence at least opens the aperture for groups like Jaish al-Mahdi to try to reconstitute,” said Brett McGurk, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former National Security Council official who worked on Iraq policy.

“You have to distinguish between the Sadrists as a [political] movement and the Sadrists as a tradition going back, and Jaish al-Mahdi, which is an entirely different animal,” said Mr. McGurk. “Just because someone’s a Sadrist doesn’t mean they are a militant violent actor – far from it… They represent a part of the population that needs to have a political voice in Iraq.”

1 | 2 | 3

Next