March 20, 2006

Once again, sectarianism and diversity of ethnicity knocks on the Iraqi door with the threat of pushing the country into a long drawn civil war, which will be both destructive and costly upon Iraq’s unity, its people and its land. The danger of this civil war lies in the fact that it will also have consequences on other countries.

Some may be led to believe that country is being driven to civil war solely by Iraqi political infighting. The reality on the ground is somewhat different. Indeed, the US occupation of Iraq, which imposes upon the Iraqi people sectarian policies that serve its own interest in the narrowest sense, plays the leading role in promoting this Iraqi-Iraqi conflict, pushing the people of Iraq closer to their doom with every day that passes. The occupation achieves this by denying the true Iraqi nationalist forces from participating in the Iraqi decision making process. Such forces are primarily opposed to the foreign occupation of Iraq and happen to be the most popular amongst all Iraqis irrespective of ethnicity, sect, religion and/or colour.

The facts on the ground indicate that the US administration has began to realise the sheer magnitude of its military and political losses in Iraq from the increase in the level of popular resistance both armed and peaceful; and the failure of the US-driven Iraqi political process upon which it had gambled as part of its exist strategy, culminating in the election results which had not gone according to the US plans. Now the US administration has clearly begun to play the last remaining option, which is the civil war, in order to provide a cover for its total miserable failure in this forsaken country. The US frustration at their own failures was clear in the threats made by the US ambassador to some of the Iraqi political groups on the need to strictly adhere to the American-imposed conditions for them to participate in the forth-coming government.

Indeed the clearest promotion of the prospect of civil war was that of the bombing of the Tomb of the Two Imams, Ali Alhadi and Alhassan Alaskari, in the city of Samara. Reliable information clearly implicates the US and Iraqi forces in this criminal act against one of many holy sites in Iraq. Local eye-witnesses collectively testify that the US forces of occupation and Iraqi forces had jointly surrounded the Tomb, and subsequently withdrew at 9pm on Wednesday. They then returned to the holy shrine at 10pm of the same day, where they spent a great deal of time walking around the shrine.

This presence continued until 6am of the following morning; the Americans then left along with the so-called Iraqi National Guards at 6.30am: that is precisely 15mins before the bomb went off devastating the site of extreme religious and historical value to the people of Iraq as a whole.

The level of devastation clearly shows that the planning and planting of the explosives could not have taken the 15minutes between the departure of the US and Iraqi forces and moment when the bomb went off; indeed several hours would have been needed to successfully plant the series of explosives around the building.

Another local eye-witnesses said he was surprised by the heavily presences of the US and Iraqi forces which was surrounding the tomb during the curfew which had been imposed on the city between 8pm the night before the bombing took place and 6am of the following morning. Once the curfew had begun at 8pm on the night before, the streets became very busy with government cars carrying the most dreaded Iraqi special forces and US occupation forces. They surrounded the holy site until 6am of the following morning. Then, they withdrew and the bomb went off 15minutes after they had departed!
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published in alquds alarabi, 20/3/2006
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Abbas Almo’alim
email: abbas_468@hotmail.com