Baghdad mosques become vigilante forts as sectarianism divides suburbs

onathan Steele in Baghdad with additional reporting by an Iraqi journalist Friday April 21, 2006 The Guardian

In the wave of sectarian violence that has hit Iraq since the destruction of one of the country's holiest shrines in February, many mosques around Baghdad have become training grounds and weapons stores as much as places of prayer.

More significantly, they are now seen as the preserve of a single sect - the meeting place and bastion of one or other beleaguered community. The al-Nour mosque in Baghdad's western suburb of al-Jihad used to have both Shia and Sunni worshippers. "Only one Shia comes to the mosque now," said Adnan, a young guard who did not want to give his real name. He and other Sunnis are on watch each night to defend the mosque.

Neighbourhood vigilantes first sprang up in Baghdad's middle- and upper-class suburbs in the looting and lawless chaos following Saddam Hussein's downfall. Residents mounted checkpoints to protect homes and shops. The new vigilantes are on guard to protect mosques and lives.

The first wave of violence after the destruction of the shrine in Samarra, which is sacred to Shias, targeted Sunni mosques. Sunnis accused the large Shia militias - the Badr organisation linked to the interior ministry and the Mahdi army of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr - of leading or condoning the raids.

People, rather than buildings, became the next target. Hundreds of Baghdad Sunnis have been abducted and murdered in recent weeks, usually by armed men turning up at night, knocking on doors and seizing people. Sunnis wonder how the killers can so easily defy Baghdad's nightly curfew if they are not linked to the police.

With their high roofs and minarets, mosques have become the best places from which defenders can keep watch, and alert neighbours to get their guns and join the defence.

Adnan's brother was wounded by two bullets in a raid on the al-Nour mosque four days after the Samarra attack. Another guard was killed. "We only had Kalashnikov rifles. Now we have more powerful weapons," Adnan said.

Sunnis have no large armed formations of their own. The neighbourhood vigilantes operate as small separate groups. "There are other volunteers who take turns, up to 50 of us here," said Adnan.

As yet the Sunni militias are primarily defensive. They are not formally linked to the anti-occupation insurgency. Indeed, at the al-Nour mosque, Adnan stressed, the guards are not anti-American. "The plan is that if US forces come on their own, the guards should not fire on them. If it's only Iraqis, they should," he said.

The same rules apply in the nearby district of al-Furat, which unlike al-Jihad is almost entirely Sunni. "The elders have told the Americans they will not attack them if they come in. Only Iraqi forces will be hit. Since Samarra no Iraqi forces have gone into al-Furat. They know they will be massacred," a resident said.

As Baghdad splits up into no-go areas for the Iraqi police, the danger is that the groundwork is being laid for a civil war in the city. If sectarian violence increased, the separate mosque defenders could start coordinating, turning the city into a jigsaw of no-go areas, like Beirut in the 1980s. They could also make common cause with the insurgents and turn against the Americans.

"This is our biggest problem, the militias and the untrustworthiness of the official security forces. It could easily turn into fiefdoms, each area with its own militia," warned Adnan Pachachi, a secular Sunni who serves as interim speaker of the new parliament.

Despite the rising sectarian suspicions in suburbs such as al-Jihad, Sheikh Hussein, the mosque's imam, still preaches in favour of tolerance. In a recent sermon he urged Iraqis to remain united. "It's the occupation which wants us to fight each other," he told worshippers.

His words may have come too late. Al-Jihad's two Shia mosques have become mirror images of al-Nour. They are strongholds of armed Shias. "Although I live here, it isn't safe for me to visit either of them," Adnan said. His worry is not the Shia reaction, but what his own side would think: "When I come out, something might happen. The Sunnis are watching the Shia mosques closely."