Three days ago I posted a diary that said:
…while the media has been focusing on the struggle to form a new Iraqi government against a backdrop of surging violence, a disturbing exchange during a Defense Department press briefing regarding the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, seems to have flown under the radar.
I then recounted an exchange about the disturbing news of the Badr Corps and Mahdi Army moving into Kirkuk, potentially setting the stage for an all-out civil war in Iraq. And getting up to speed today, the Washington Post reports that:
Hundreds of Shiite Muslim militiamen have deployed in recent weeks to this restive city — widely considered the most likely flash point for an Iraqi civil war — vowing to fight any attempt to shift control over Kirkuk to the Kurdish-governed north, according to U.S. commanders and diplomats, local police and politicians.
It gets worse…
During Friday’s Defense Department press briefing (and the basis for my previous diary), Colonel David Gray was asked about “reports of Shi’a moving into Kirkuk area,” and he said:
We have seen some movement, as I mentioned, of the Badr Corps setting up additional offices in Kirkuk, and some indication of the Jaysh al-Mahdi coming to Kirkuk. How many the numbers are, I can’t really say. They’re coming in bits and pieces. I don’t think it’s in huge numbers right now.
And now, four days later, from the Washington Post article:
The Mahdi Army, led by firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has sent at least two companies, each with about 120 fighters…The Badr Organization, the armed wing of Iraq’s largest Shiite political party, has also boosted its presence and opened several offices across the region, military officers here said. […]
…Sadr’s representative in the city, Abdul Karim Khalifa, told U.S. officials that more armed loyalists were on the way and that as many as 7,000 to 10,000 Shiite residents were prepared to fight alongside the Mahdi Army if called upon. Legions more Shiite militiamen would push north from Baghdad’s Sadr City slum, he said, according to Wise.
“His message was essentially that any idea of Kirkuk going to the Kurds will mean a fight,”
And since the militia’s arrival? According to local police, kidnappings have “surged” and militia members are implicated in at least five murders.
As I outlined in my previous diary:
Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq…
The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga – the Kurdish militia – and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn’t hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted.
This notion is reiterated in the Washington Post, with the article saying that Kurdish leaders have announced that they will not hesitate to fight for Kirkuk and that they have been increasing their own militia and private security force’s strength in response to the arrival of the Badr Corps and Mahdi Army.
It seems that the Civil War that we’ve long dreaded is getting even closer.