Word: shia
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...SCIRI's leadership has considerable influence in Najaf, and if they're alienated from the process launched by General Garner, political stability could prove elusive. If the U.S. objective is to exclude groups with ties to Iran, that could put it on a collision course with many Iraqi Shia. If not, the SCIRI's objections may be overcome - the group has emphasized that it is not demanding Shiite control of a future Iraqi government. And it has previously worked with Kurdish factions of the exiled opposition and even Chalabi's INC, and its leaders are demanding the speedy implementation...
...months before the 3rd Infantry Division crossed the border from Kuwait, Special Forces teams entered the Iraq. One of their primary missions was to establish the conditions and train fighters for a revolt in the Shia areas in the south of the country. But they failed to spark the anticipated revolt. In retrospect, it's easy to see why; the Shia have been burned before by what they thought were U.S. promises of support. A Shia rebellion against Saddam in the aftermath of the first Gulf War was brutally suppressed, and no one here, remembering the tens of thousands killed...
...course, when you get to that point, you really don't need a popular revolt. A Shia uprising was supposed to wipe out the Baath Party and destroy any paramilitary cadres along the line of the coalition advance. American forces accomplished both of these missions. Still, the Afghanistan model called for a popular revolt, and in An Najaf last week Special Ops soldiers set out to recruit...
...helps to look at the background of Iraqi's Shia population and of Ayatollah al-Khoei. The scion of one of the two most powerful families of Iraqi Shiites, al-Khoei returned to An Najaf two weeks ago with the help of the U.S. military after a decade in exile outside Iraq. He was the son of the former Grand Ayatollah of An Najaf, Abdul-Qasim al-Khoei, who had died in 1992 under house arrest by Saddam Hussein's regime. The current Grand Ayatollah, Ali al-Sistani, was also under house arrest until U.S. troops took control...
...deeply religious Shia Muslim, Zaki bears the mark of the devout - the top of his forehead, just below his lace prayer cap, is darkened from repeated rubbing on the ground. Piety is the key to his influence over the extended household: with the exception of Muntaha, all the adult women wear traditional Islamic clothing, complete with tightly drawn headscarves. Even the token portrait of the president on the living room wall depicts Saddam deep in prayer...