Word: jaish
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Besides Sadr's Jaish al Mahdi and Hakim's Badr Corps, a new group has recently surfaced in the city called the Brigade of Hussein, named after the 7th Century Shi'ite martyr Imam Hussein, the central figure of Shi'a Islam. The group claimed responsibility for the recent attack on the Polish ambassador in Baghdad, a coordinated ambush that included a series of timed explosions and pre-planned gunfire that wounded the ambassador and killed one of his security guards. In Diwaniyah, locals say these armed groups may focus their attention on the local Polish base in the city...
...other areas, most notably cities in Anbar Province, have calmed down. The local government and security forces of Diwaniyah are largely controlled by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) and its armed wing, the Badr Corps, who are challenged almost daily in the streets by members of the rival Jaish al Mahdi, the militia loyal to cleric Moqtada al Sadr. (The SIIC was formerly known as the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, with the initials SCIRI.) While both groups are engaged in a raw and bloody fight for dominance in the region, they are also pitted against each...
...chat among themselves excitedly. "Good. Good. Already we to go to the peace," says Salih Ibrahim, 50, an art teacher who speaks rough English and who tries to translate questions from his friends. Ibrahim says one region to the east of town still swarms with members of the Jaish al Mahdi - the militia loyal to anti-American Shi'a cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, which the soldiers call "JAM" for short. Ibrahim and others complain that the Americans shell the area regularly, reminding some of the men of the horrors of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s...
...Craig Whiteside, the battalion executive officer, said the success of the Sunni militias against al-Qaeda and Jaish al Islaimi on the west side of the river, where they say they have the last al-Qaeda cell in southern Iraq on the ropes, helped put a spotlight on Shi'ite extremists to the east, the battalion's main enemy in the region. It gives the Shi'ite volunteer groups a window of opportunity to take control of their own communities. "I think the Jammers were like, 'We've got 100% of their attention now,'" he said. "It keeps their heads...
...them on the run, reaping a windfall of American aid money in the process. What has surprised military officials about the groups around Musayyib, though, is that they are Shi'ite or of mixed sect, containing both Sunnis and Shi'ite residents who rejected the excesses of the Jaish al Mahdi, the Shi'ite militia nominally loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al Sadr. Almost 500 Shi'ites and at least as many Sunnis have already signed on. Shi'ite communities in the capital of Baghdad are also reportedly growing unhappy with al-Sadr's militia...