WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The minority Sunni members of the Diyala Provincial Council in Iraq have boycotted it to protest a massive raid conducted by the Interior Ministry's special police commandos, fanning the flames of sectarian division.
Iraq's interior ministry is controlled by a Shiite, and is considered by many Sunnis to be targeting them for arrest and abuse, retribution for years of Shiite persecution under Saddam Hussein.
There is strong pressure on the Interior Ministry from Shiites to crack down on the largely Sunni insurgency. On Friday, two Shiite mosques were bombed during prayers, killing at least 70 and wounded at least another 100.
Interior ministry forces are prohibited from involvement in Shiite militias like the Badr Brigade. However, anecdotal evidence of targeted and unsanctioned violence against Sunnis from cities across Iraq suggests Badr or other rogue elements have a presence throughout the ministry.
On Sunday, a U.S. Army unit commandeered an interior ministry jail after finding nearly 170 prisoners being held, many with signs of malnourishment and physical abuse. The prisoners were nearly all Sunnis. Sunni political groups -- as well as a United Nations official -- have called for an independent investigation into interior ministry jails. The ministry announced it would investigate the matter itself.
This week, the Wolf Brigade, an Iraqi special police unit of some 2,000, swept into Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, and arrested some 300 people, according to U.S. military officials.
Among those arrested were council member Mohammed Kamil and an Iraqi judge. Within a few hours U.S. forces arranged for the release of the judge, a man respected and trusted by the Americans. The remaining prisoners were sent off to Baghdad.
"Now all of the Sunni members of the (provincial council) have suspended their membership and are boycotting all the meetings," a U.S. military official told UPI. "They sent a letter to the chairman of the (council) demanding an investigation into the raid and are claiming it was a SCIRI (Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq) attempt to interfere with the election."
The operation came in the wake of the appointment by the Shiite governor of Diyala of a new police chief for the province, which is 55 percent Shiite. The new police chief has no law enforcement experience, the U.S. military source said, but he is associated with the SCIRI, the political arm of the Badr brigade.
The raid may have been conducted in response to a car bomb that exploded outside a restaurant near the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan that killed more than 20 Shiites breaking their fast.
The governor may have requested the raid "to show that he's got muscle to flex," the official said.
U.S. police assistance teams worked with the Wolf Brigade to plan the operation and American assets -- including a surveillance drone, medical team and a quick reaction force -- were assigned to support it.
"We weren't thrilled to have them come up here because we think our own (Baqubah) police can handle things well, but the operation went smoothly," another U.S. military official said.
"We put (coalition) forces with each of their units so that we could watch them work. They rounded up a bunch of detainees, but they did it in a professional manner and they were respectful of the local people. There has been some protesting from the Sunnis about the operation, but for the most part it hasn't been a major issue because they didn't come in here and shoot the place up or beat people in the streets. The good news is that we think they did detain some bad guys."
The official U.S. statement is far less detailed.
"The MOI's public order Brigade known as the Wolf Brigade conducted a planned operation in Baqubah to kill or capture known insurgents. The raid was successful and is another indicator of the Iraqi Security Forces' increased capability," the statement said.
The effect of the Wolf Brigade operation -- and the perception of Sunni persecution -- is still unclear. The Sunni members of the provincial council have boycotted just one meeting so far and sent the Sunni deputy governor of Diyala to Baghdad to protest the mass arrests.
"We also had a small (150 people maximum) demonstration in downtown Baqubah that was very orderly and peaceful, and ended in time for lunch," the U.S. military official said.
"There are 'mixed feelings' about the Wolf Brigade," a senior U.S. military official told UPI in September. "The good news is that they're very aggressive and capable of independent action, but sometimes that creates challenges as well, with operations that are not completely coordinated. And they were, for some period, a bit prone to sweep operations rather than more targeted ones. We think there's been progress with them in the past month or so, though, and the Minister of Interior worked hard to get a solid grip on them."
U.S. officials have had particular concerns about some Wolf Brigade officers' allegiance to Shiite groups rather than the Iraqi government conducting operations outside their interior ministry orders; at least two have been removed from duty under U.S. pressure.
In May 2005, the Sunni-controlled Association of Muslim Scholars alleged the Wolf Brigade was responsible for "mass killings" and arrests in northeastern Baghdad.
Iraqi and U.S. officials said the victims were likely killed by insurgent terrorists or were victims of tribal or retributive violence.
"Not beating people in the streets" marks an improvement over last year when a UPI reporter in Baghdad covered an anti-crime and terrorism arrest operation commanded by Deputy Minister of the Interior for Intelligence Affairs Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal.
"In the backs of pickup trucks, Iraqi police officers worked over some of the detainees with lengths of garden hose and metal batons. Even as the convoy wended its way through the streets of Baghdad the beating continued for those who had drawn specific ire," the reporter observed.
"This is a new kind of operation for a new Iraq, this is a new war by a new government," Kamal said in June 2004. "Those who kill Iraqi police, the Iraqi people, our allies or American soldiers cannot escape my punishment."
While the interior ministry is headed by a Shiite, tits intelligence chief is a Sunni Kurd. The head of the special police is a Sunni Arab.
As the United States trains Iraqi forces with the goal of handing off security responsibility to them -- a requirement before U.S. troops can withdraw in any number -- they continually grapple with the fundamental issue of authority and control. Iraq is a sovereign country with a history of state-sanctioned violence.
"This could take a generation to address," a senior U.S. official said.
It is not yet clear the new regime is embracing human and civil rights with any more enthusiasm. In a separate incident in June 2004, Oregon National Guardsman serving in Baghdad came upon an interior ministry jail where prisoners appeared to have been abused, claimed they had been denied food and water and where potential torture implements were found -- particularly hoses and metal rods. Those soldiers, after commandeering the prison, were ordered by the U.S. military chain of command to withdraw in deference to Iraq's newly bestowed sovereignty.
Roughly 20 percent of Iraq is Sunni Arab, with their population concentrated in the central part of the country. Depsite their minority status, they have held power in Iraq -- at the expense of the majority Shiites -- for generations. The Iraqi insurgency is being fought almost entirely by Sunnis, who resent the occupation and fear for their future under Shiite leadership.
Some of the criticism of the interior ministry is undoubtedly political, an attempt to influence voters before the Dec. 15 national elections.
As the government in Baghdad struggles to its feet, one of its primary tasks will be to bring the Sunni population into the fold to support the government, thereby draining the life from the insurgency.
The United States has advocated doing this through democratic process. However, U.S. military officials say a possible though less savory recipe for stability would be a powerful central government that rules with an iron fist. The December elections may indicate, which, if either of those directions is more likely.
