Word: sunni
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...that they necessarily knew it, but a Marine platoon stumbled into a potential hornet's nest at 1:30 on Friday in Baghdad, at the al Hanif al Naaman Mosque in the Adhimiya district. Adhimiya is a bastion of the capital's Sunni Muslim minority, whose members have traditionally dominated Iraq's ruling elite both before and during Saddam Hussein's regime. And had the Marines been able to read the banners in Arabic held aloft by worshipers, or understand the sermon of Sheikh Ahmad al Kuwaisi booming out over loudspeakers, they might have been impressed with the content...
...religious structures of the Shiite clergy - with which the U.S. has, at best, an awkward relationship - that have come to the fore, being the only coherent national organizational structure once the war left the Baath Party and the security services in disarray. Shiite Islam, unlike the Sunni variant, concentrates religious authority along local and regional lines. The ability of the Shiite clerical hierarchy in Najaf to project its authority into Baghdad, for example, has been visible over the past week: Acting on orders from Najaf, local Imams have organized their followers into armed neighborhood militia that have moved to stop...
...Powell, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, wanted U.S. troops safely home, not mired in what might become a messy civil war. Secretary of State James Baker feared the "Lebanonization of Iraq." His nightmare: Iraqi Shi'ites, aligned with Iran's fundamentalist Shi'ites, would carve out the south; Sunni Muslims would hold the center; and Kurds, who long craved an independent state, would capture the north, upsetting Turkey, which feared revolt from its own Kurdish population...
...fielding irregulars like the Fedayeen Saddam. These estimated 20,000 young "men of sacrifice," commanded by the ruler's notorious older son Uday, are the regime's most politically reliable force, known for their readiness to carry out its dirty work. Beginning in 1995, Uday recruited local toughs from Sunni regions devoted to Baath rule to form a family security force under his personal control. Originally in charge of smuggling, the Fedayeen were schooled to become a ruthless instrument for quelling dissent. Skilled in torture and assassination and willing to die for Saddam, the Fedayeen are perfectly suited to their...
...anything until Saddam's gone," said a disappointed senior Pentagon official. The Administration blames it all on the dying regime's brutality. With Saddam's paramilitaries at work in the south, even the Shi'ite population, which has never been granted much political power by the ruling Sunni elite, has been cowed. In the aftermath of the previous Gulf War, the first President Bush encouraged the Shi'ites to revolt, then stood on the sidelines when Saddam viciously crushed them. They haven't forgotten. The U.S. war commander, Army General Tommy Franks, said "fear tactics are still being applied...