Iraq: Al-Sadr Forms Shadow Government In Baghdad Stronghold

As the manufactured sectarian violence in Iraq increases, the Kurdish Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr has taken control of the area of central Baghdad known as “Sadr City.”

The Madhi Army has been blamed for some of the worst attacks and killings in Baghdad following the bombing of the Samarra shrine.

Erbil, 16 March (AKI) – A Kurdish source in Baghdad has told a Kurdish national daily that the Mahdi Army, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, “has set up a shadow government in Sadr City in the centre of Baghdad”. The source told the Aso daily: “this group was tasked with carrying out the affairs of the city in the place of the Iraqi government and institutions.” The source explained that the Mahdi Army, accused of kidnappings and sectarian killings, has transformed the rundown Sadr city into an independent district with its security forces and its own courts which do not only judge local residents but also Shiites from other areas of the capital.

The source alleged that “the health and transport ministers, which both are headed by minsiters from the Sadr faction, have been completely monopolised by followers of this movement” adding that “in Sadr City the police forces, for example the local police, take their orders from Moqtada al-Sadr and not from the interior ministry.”

The Cultural Network of Iraq, an internet site which publishes news on the Shiite community, has said that “the peoples courts in Sadr City have condemned to death terrorists who carried…

Posted by ShiftShapers
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