IRAQ:Assassinations in Mosul are carried out not only by al-Qaeda, but also US forces, say human rights activists. Lara Marlowereports from Baghdad.
THREE SOLEMN men from Mosul dropped by for a chat this weekend. Like the majority of inhabitants of Iraq's third-largest city, they are Sunni Muslims. They have suffered at the hands of al-Qaeda in Iraq, and through the misdeeds of US occupation forces. Al-Qaeda are Sunnis, but they slaughter Sunnis who don't agree with them.
Hareth Adeeb, an activist with the Islamic Organisation for Human Rights in Iraq (IOHR), was at home in Mosul at 6.30pm on May 12th, 2007, when a neighbour burst through the front door to tell him that Adeeb's father, Adeeb al-Chalabi, was dead. He rushed to the scene of the murder, on the short drive between his father's medical clinic and the family house.
"Eyewitnesses saw three men with red and white keffiyehs wrapped around their faces and only their eyes showing," Adeeb recounts. "They drove up alongside him and shot him in the head . . . Three months later, my brother-in-law, who is also a doctor, was shot dead, also in traffic in Mosul. Two weeks ago, my cousin was killed by the al-Mahdi army in Baghdad. He was kidnapped and the family paid $22,000 in ransom. We found his body in the morgue." Adeeb smiles a forced smile, as if to prevent himself crying.
"My mother and brother also work in human rights," he continues. "We first received threats in 2005, because we were informing people about the new constitution and elections. We received a letter saying 'what you are doing is haram (forbidden). If you continue you will be killed'. We get phone calls. Sometimes al-Qaeda makes up lists of people to be assassinated, and our names are on them."
US officials claim Mosul is al-Qaeda in Iraq's "last major urban stronghold". Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki has repeatedly vowed to wipe out the organisation. On May 14th, he flew to Mosul to supervise an umpteenth offensive against al-Qaeda in the region. Some 1,300 men have since been arrested, though more than 200 were subsequently released.
"People are happy about Maliki's security plan," says Hareth Adeeb. "But at the same time they're afraid the government isn't serious about finishing off al-Qaeda, and it will end up like the earlier operations and security plans."
Commandos from the interior ministry's Wolf brigade fought al-Qaeda in Mosul from late 2004 until May 2005. "People were caught, like meat in a sandwich," says Adeeb. "When the Wolf brigade pulled out, most of the policemen went to the mosque and repented and promised never to join the police or army again."
Al-Qaeda has been responsible for much of the worst violence in Iraq, including the bombing of the UN headquarters and the destruction of the golden mosque in Samarra, which sparked the Sunni-Shia bloodbath of the past two years. The group comprises foreign fighters who come across the Syrian border not far from Mosul, and poor, uneducated Iraqi youths. They include religious zealots, racketeers, kidnappers and psychopathic killers who saw off heads.
Many Sunnis distinguish between what they consider "legitimate resistance" by former Baathist military in the Islamic Army in Iraq, strongly represented in Mosul, and "al-Qaeda terrorists".
Odey Talal, a professor of human rights at Mosul college of law, made the six-hour drive to Baghdad with Hareth Adeeb. "They also target professors," he said. "Three of our deans - Leila Said, Abdul Jabar and Talal al-Jalili - have been assassinated. They want to wipe out educated people."
Confusion surrounds most reports about al-Qaeda in Iraq. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, assumed leadership of the group after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a US air raid in June 2006. Al-Masri declared the "Islamic state of Iraq" the following October. He was falsely reported to have been arrested on May 8th.
Another leader called Omar al-Baghdadi was reported dead last year, after which the US said he had never existed.
The conversation shifts to US forces. "People regularly get killed when the Americans search their houses," says Adeeb. "Just two weeks ago, US forces arrested the father and killed a mother and son in al-Danadan, near Mosul," says Yasser Dea'a, a lawyer from Mosul who now runs the Adala Centre for Justice in Baghdad.
"In February, the Americans killed a former Iraqi pilot with his son," Adeeb continues. "On March 29th, 2007, they killed Khaled Zaywar and his three sons. Our organisation filmed them soon after the murder. The bodies were in their beds, shot in the head, with their brains spilling over the pillows. We put the video on the IOHR website. We don't know if they were insurgents, but they were sleeping when they were killed. We think the Americans are acting like death squads."
"If the Americans have information there is resistance or Mujahideen in an area, they go and kill people," says Dea'a. "If one of their men is killed or injured or a vehicle is destroyed, they arrest everyone in the street. If a US base is attacked, they destroy the houses around it; it's collective punishment."
"Al-Qaeda kills more people than the Americans," Adeeb interrupts.
"Yes, but we are talking about authorities who have immunity and don't respect human rights; these are war crimes," counters Dea'a. "We want to emphasise that the US occupation is still killing innocent people." His colleagues nod gravely.
Dea'a was arrested in a US round-up in Mosul and held for one week. "Ten of us were detained because they were looking for one man, whom they didn't find. I know one or two of the 10 joined the insurrection because they wanted revenge. They may not carry weapons, but they support the insurgents. A man who's been arbitrarily arrested makes an easy recruit for al-Qaeda." The US military "surge" has been accompanied by a surge in prisoners held by US forces. Their number increased 70 per cent last year, from 14,500 to 24,700. A further 26,000 are held by US-backed authorities.