Residents Charge Iranian Intelligence are Running Samawa

by Karen Button

Samawa, the capital of Al-Muthana’s southern governate, sits on the shores of the Euphrates River about 270 km (170 m) south of Baghdad. It is here where sources, too afraid to be identified in this article, charge that Iranian intelligence forces inside the Badr militia are running local government and that the provincial governor, Mohammed al-Hassaani, is in their back pocket.

These sources include a religious sheikh, a police officer, two journalists and several local residents, all too frightened to openly state their names, even though one of them now lives outside Iraq. They have good reason: many who have publicly decried the SCIRI-backed governor or its militia, the Badr Organisation, are now disappeared or dead—two of them killed just days ago.

At 9:30pm on the night of May 5, the bodies of Smaah Mohammed and his uncle were found dead in the streets of Samawa. According to residents, the two men had spoken out in the past about the Badr, accusing them of ongoing attacks against Japanese troops, whose base is nearby.

“They made a big scandal against Badr,” says one man from Samawa. “Afterwards Mr. Smaah was kidnapped by the Badr and taken to Samawa police prison. Mr. Smaah gave money to the Samawa police [for his release] and then he ran away to Syria three months ago.” Smaah Mohammed had returned just five days before his assassination, assured that the recent change in Iraq’s government meant everything in Samawa was under control.

“He is thinking everything is ok,” the man continues, “but after he come back the death forces and Badr organisation kill him in the street. His body was found like [an] execution, shooting by gun into his head.”

Both of the dead men were Shi’a and were the latest deaths in what is being called a campaign to “free” Samawa of its Sunni population and any others opposed to the Badr.

Peaceful Protests Lead to Crackdowns
Last August was a crucial time in Samawa. Fed up with water and electricity shortages, a crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators held a peaceful march against the local government. Security forces, at the order of governor al-Hassaani, fired on the crowd killing at least two people and injuring 45. At an emergency meeting the regional council voted to oust al-Hassaani, who then refused to leave. Though the Mahdi Army threatened to take over if the governor didn’t exit, SCIRI officials from Baghdad—facing their own crisis to finish writing the constitution--hurriedly gathered in Samawa and convinced them to back off.

Though Samawa had been relatively free from the street violence of other Iraqi cities, residents say that began to change once al-Hassaani was installed as SCIRI’s representative.

Al-Hassaani’s refusal to step down didn’t help much with public opinion. One local journalist, who asked to be called Marwan Muhammad, was subsequently arrested twice by Badr forces for his news reports and forced to flee the country for his own safety; he tells me Samawans have been kept in check by fear. Muhammad was fortunate, though the order to arrest him came directly from the governor, he was released because many of the police officers were old family friends from this tight-knit community. Muhammad recalls an international news conference later last year where governor al-Hassaani personally approached him and said, “Marwan, I will kill you in the future!”

Iranian Intelligence Forces Increase
Sources inside Samawa claim that 1,200 Iranian intelligence forces entered the city about six weeks ago, and are now purging lists kept by local security forces of those who have been opposed to Iraq’s occupation or to the Badr.

Another reporter smuggled out details of a meeting he attended at the end of March. Held in the Muthana Council offices, governor Mohammed al-Hassaani met with, among others, Sheikh Saeed Abed Al-Ameer Dhwaini, Muthana Council President; Sheikh Ali Al-Meyali, Manager of the Iraqi government’s local Shi’ite Office; and Sheikh Abed Allah Al-Shamery from the Imam Ali mosque. At the meeting it was decided there would be a campaign “for making south Iraq free from Al-Suna Group.” It was agreed the method would be to label Sunnis “terrorists” and security forces would either “capture him and kill him” or “make them to enter the prison.”

A similar attempt was made six months ago when posters signed by the governor himself began appearing around town. In them it was declared that on behalf of the Shi’ite Al-Hussain (the man killed many eons ago and the reason for the Shi’ite/Sunni split), the Sunnis were declared terrorists and they must be made to leave Samawa. “But,” said Muhammad, “many Samawa people from the Shi’a prevent that, and say if attack al-Suna, we will declare the war against Badr organization in Samawa. Al-Suna are 40% in Samawa and many people are married between Shi’ite and al-Suna.”

At the March meeting, no Sunni were invited. The man who smuggled out details and photographs is a Shi’a. One photo taken from the meeting show Council president Sheikh Dhwaini, Governor Hassaani, the Deputy Governor Raed Dhwaini (Sheikh Dhwaini’s nephew), and Sheikh Al-Hassan, leader of the tribe to which A-Hassaani belongs, all Shi’a, all seated together.

When asked about the picture, Muhammad immediately recognizes the attendees. “All of them are Badr,” he says. When I ask if he knows Sheikh Ali Al-Meyali, he replies, “yes, he is an Iranian intelligence operative.”

How can you be sure? I ask. "When I was arrested there were also five Iranians in the jail with me, but they were unafraid. When I asked them why they said Sheikh Ali Al-Meyali will come to get them. And he did, I saw him, and they didn't have to go to the court. Afterwards I asked many of my contacts in the police, ‘who is this sheikh,’ and they told me, ‘he is with the Iranian intelligence.’"

“Now, it has started; the operation has begun,” declared the source who attended the March meeting. This time though, not only Sunnis will be targeted, but also anyone else opposed to the Badr.

Recent deaths are enough to prove that.

Just a week prior to Smaah Mohammed’s execution, 33 year-old Hussein Ali Kadem and 29 year-old taxi driver Nazar Mohamed were both taken from their homes at 2am by Badr forces, according to a sheikh in the city whose help the families sought. The families had already been to the police station where they were told they didn’t know the where men’s whereabouts, that they were taken by a “top group [who are] working with Samawa governor.” Yet, when they questioned the governor’s office, they were told, “I don’t know about that and I don’t know this group.”

The sheikh was extremely nervous, afraid if his name were published in connection to these men, he would also be in danger. Such is the level of fear in Samawa. For good reason.

At 11pm four nights later, 42 year-old Safaa Jasem, a Shi’a and shop master from Samawa, was found dead in the streets of Al-Jumhuri neighborhood. According to witnesses Jasem’s body showed signs of torture and he had been shot in the head, the same execution-style killing as is common in Baghdad these days. Samawa police prevented media coverage of the killing and forbade residents from speaking about it, telling them it would only cause more problems, a source told me. “But,” if they are not hiding anything, he asked, “now Samawa police don’t like any peoples from Samawa talking about this criminal. Why?”

Samawa Police Not on Board
Not all police are comfortable with the plan, though. One officer from the Al-Huria police station says,” There are Samawa police which don’t like to help this group, but they are afraid from the Samawa governor to be killed if they are not cooperating.” He says they received orders to obtain information about Samawans to begin “the operation,” and that the command had come down the channel of command from the Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistany himself.

In fact, there are rumblings that local police, fed up with the Badr, may fight back. Leaflets being distributed throughout Samawa today say that 250 police officers were told to “go home,” that they were being replaced by Badr. Instead, the former police are threatening to declare war on the Badr.

When asked what the nearby international troops, from Australia, Britain and Japan, are doing about the situation, one the journalist Muhammad responded. “What are they going to do? These are Iraqi peoples, if they are killed or not this is a very ordinary thing; they don’t worry about that.” Besides, he says, indicating that the occupation by international troops means little in how Iraq’s politics play out on the local level, “only Samawa’s people know to be afraid about this declaration; it is them who will be killed or who will fight back.”