US Forces Tread A Fine Sectarian Line.

A joint patrol of the US 101st Airborne Division and the Iraqi army is prowling the streets of A'dhamiya after midnight, enforcing Baghdad's curfew, when a tip is relayed to them that a number of the radical Shi'ite militia, Jaysh al-Mahdi, some in police uniforms, have staged a kidnapping at one of the city's main hospitals. Jaysh al-Mahdi, being armed and trained by Iran as in the case of Hizbullah in Lebanon, is believed to be responsible for much of the sectarian killing in Baghdad in the past six months, so this could be a death squad in action. Or it could be a police unit, or both.

The FT on Aug. 15 reported that Capt. Will Arnold, commander of the patrol, was at first reluctant to react to the kind of report which had in the past sent him criss-crossing Baghdad. The paper quoted him as saying: "People are always [calling] about something they don't understand". With paranoia over Shi'ite militia infiltration of the police at a high, some Sunnis are convinced that anyone in uniform is Jaysh al-Mahdi. But soon more details emerge - the hostages are six Sunni patients, taken by a gang of men from the Ministry of Health's guard force. This is a common enough occurrence, according to Baghdad's Sunnis.

Health Minister Ali al-Shammari is a member of the Sadrist movement to which Jaysh al-Mahdi belongs. He is reported to have staffed his guard with former militiamen. Sunnis from the nearby district of A'dhamiya shun this place, even though they have no medical facilities in their neighbourhood. The only time they come is to check the morgue for their missing. Among the alleged hostages is one of the ministry's own top officials, a member of a Sunni political party who disappeared in June.

The patrol heads to the minister's office, where the alleged kidnap force was last spotted. Capt Arnold's men push inside, but doors are locked and no one can be found to produce a key. The hostages - if there are hostages - could be anywhere inside, or in surrounding buildings. To tear apart the building would cause a political storm. Capt Arnold decides on a solution - five guards whose description matches the kidnappers will be arrested by the Iraqi army unit. The next day the political storm erupts anyway. The minister of health delivers press statements calling the arrests a "provocation" and demanding an end to the US military occupation.

At the Iraqi army battalion headquarters in that evening, planning for a key raid is interrupted about every 15 minutes by a call from the Ministry of Defence, demanding the release of the arrested guards. The staff colonel at the ministry tells the Iraqi battalion commander that the prime minister himself has ordered their release. "Does the prime minister want to release kidnappers?", the US military adviser in the room asks flatly. The FT said the detainees were still being held in the evening of Aug. 14.

As the sectarian violence soars, Sunni leaders once staunchly opposed to the US presence are now saying they need American troops to protect them from the rampages of Shi'ite militias and Shi'ite-run government forces. Sunni pleas have been growing in intensity since an eruption of sectarian feuds after the Feb. 22 bombing of the Shi'ite shrine in Samarra', but they have reached a new pitch in recent weeks as Shi'ite militiamen have brazenly shot Sunni civilians to death in broad daylight in Baghdad and other mixed areas of central Iraq (see ood1-IraqSunnisSeekUSProtectionJuly24-06).