July 29, 2009


BAGHDAD — The Baghdad police still do not enter the hard-line Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya, which continues to suffer an insurgent attack every couple of days.

The Iraqi Army mans checkpoints here, but usually jointly with neighborhood volunteers from the Awakening movement, which is made up mostly of former Sunni insurgents who changed sides and helped reduce violence; it now fields as many as 900 paid fighters in Adhamiya.

But in little more than a week, the Iraqi Army’s 42nd Brigade has arrested seven Awakening leaders in Adhamiya, a neighborhood in north Baghdad. The second in command, Riyadh Abdul Hadi, was arrested on July 21, along with four of his followers, and last Sunday, the group’s security chief, Ghassan Muttar, and a local neighborhood leader, Abdul Khadir, were also arrested, three Awakening leaders in Adhamiya said.

The Iraqi government, which has been deeply suspicious of the Awakening movement for arming former insurgents, made no announcement of the Adhamiya arrests. They may well be another telltale sign of the dwindling influence the United States has over the Iraqi government now that American troops no longer dominate Baghdad.

In March and April, at least two dozen Awakening leaders were arrested, along with many more of their followers. The arrests apparently subsided in May, after strong expressions of concern from American officials. The recent arrests are the first known ones since American troops withdrew from cities and towns on June 30.

American military commanders at the highest levels have promised to track the arrests of Awakening leaders, and in some cases have intervened to win their release. American military officials declined to comment on the arrests. In the past, officials have stressed that arrests represented only a small portion of the 90,000 Awakening members throughout Iraq.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a Shiite, has called Awakening members patriots and said that only those who have committed new crimes will be arrested. The Awakening leaders in Adhamiya are deeply skeptical. "We thought what we did for this area would win some place in the hearts of Iraqi officials, but it hasn’t," one of the leaders said. "This place was a jungle before us."

Many Adhamiya Awakening leaders have been attacked by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely Iraqi organization with some foreign leadership. Last year a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest approached one of the local founders of the Awakening, then hugged him while detonating his vest. When other Awakening members arrived at the scene, another suicide bomber, this time in a car, drove into their midst and set off explosives, killing 13 more. Twenty-five of the Adhamiya fighters have been killed so far in insurgent attacks.

Two Awakening leaders were interviewed recently in a storefront that one of them used as a base; both spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying they feared provoking the Iraqi Army into arresting them.

Their fighters stood guard outside and along the road; outsiders to Adhamiya still draw attention from residents.

"A month ago I was ready to quit," one of the leaders said, complaining that since the Iraqi Army took over from the Americans, their pay has often been delayed, and Iraqi soldiers have often treated them contemptuously. He was persuaded by a community leader to be patient and remain in the group.

"We have sacrificed our blood here, so how can we quit?" the second leader said. He said he had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt just four months ago when a roadside bomb was detonated as he passed by.

The other leader said: "The Americans created the Awakening movement here. Before June 30th, when we had a problem, we could go to them and they would fix it. Now we don’t have anyone to talk to, we’re just hanging out in the streets."

The leaders said that local Iraqi Army commanders held a meeting with Awakening members in Adhamiya early this week, attended by an American officer, to assure them they were not singling out the organization. The army commanders said they were just arresting individuals charged with new offenses, rather than crimes committed when Adhamiya was an insurgent stronghold. In those days, the local American base was called Fort Apache.

The commanders did not, however, reveal what those offenses were. "When the Americans were here, they would have told us the reasons and then everyone would calm down," the second leader said. "Now they tell us nothing."

Sheik Sabah al-Mashadani, the overall leader of the Adhamiya Awakening, said in an interview at his home that he was unconcerned, even at the arrest of his deputy. The judicial investigation will determine whether he is guilty, he said.

Under the Iraqi legal system, suspects are arrested and then a judge supervises an investigation before determining whether the charges were justified. That process often takes many months.

"We don’t want these arrests to make any unrest in the neighborhood," the sheik said. "Since the Iraqi Army took over authority for us, we became part of the Iraqi security system, and like any other Iraqi employee, we are subject to our employer’s discipline."

Riyadh Mohammed contributed reporting.