Karada bombing brings to surface rivalry between Abadi and Shiite militia

 

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's deadliest single bombing in 13 years of war has turned the Baghdad district where it took place into the centrepiece of an increasingly bitter rivalry between the country's prime minister and Iranian-backed Shiite militias eager to hold sway over the city's most diverse and prosperous area.

 

Karada, a commercial hub on the east bank of the Tigris River, long had a reputation as one of Baghdad's most diverse neighbourhoods.

 

Though it has a Shiite majority, it boasts large Sunni Muslim and Christian communities and has the largest number of churches in a single Baghdad neighbourhood.

 

It was home to much of Iraq's once large Jewish community, which largely left the country by the 1950s.

 

Since the US-led invasion in 2003, it has been hit by seemingly endless suicide attacks, roadside bombs and even rocket shelling.

 

But it was spared the sectarian blood-letting and cleansing that tore the rest of Iraq's capital apart and is perhaps the only neighbourhood left in the city where Sunnis and Shiites continue to live side-by-side.

 

But the 3 July suicide bombing that killed nearly 300 and wounded 200 others may have pushed it too far.

 

The blast, believed to have been carried out by the Islamic State group, set fires that ripped through two shopping malls, raising the death toll and horror of the attack, deeply shaking Karada's residents.

 

"I doubt that Karada will ever return to what it was before the bombing," said survivor Majid Toamah, a 40-year-old store owner.

 

He lay on his back on the floor in a relative's home with both legs in a cast, broken when he leaped 20 metres (66 feet) to the street below to escape the fire. "There is fear and horror in our hearts now."

 

Iranian-backed Shiite militias, who style themselves Iraq's strongest protectors against militants, are stepping in, trying to gain influence in the district.

 

It is part of a wider competition for political power between them and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who has tried to limit the militias' role - but in the case of Karada, it could jeopardise the district's cosmopolitan character, given the hatred and fear among Sunnis of the militias.

 

After the bombing, al-Abadi visited Karada, only to be met by some residents shouting insults at him.

 

He had to rush out in his convoy as residents hurled water bottles, rocks and shoes at it, yelling, "thieves" and "pickpockets," a reference to allegations of widespread government corruption.

 

The next day, two of the most powerful Shiite militia leaders, Hadi al-Amri and Qais al-Khazaali, both harsh critics of al-Abadi, toured the site.

 

Some residents, overwhelmed with emotion, approached the two, pleading for help to protect Karada and avenge the victims.

 

Al-Amri called on the government to hang convicted IS militants on death row on the streets of Karada as retribution.

 

Al-Khazaali vowed to avenge the bombing and demanded that the militias be allowed to "cleanse" the environs of Baghdad.

 

Al-Abadi responded, over the weekend, saying no one would be allowed to make political gains out of the tragedy, and no one except security forces would be allowed to carry arms inside the city.

 

Some Iranian-backed militias have offices in Karada, but are unable to exert much influence among its Shiite community.

 

Most Shiites in the district are followers of Iraq's top religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a moderate cleric who has repeatedly been critical of Shiite militiamen over their abuse of Sunni civilians while fighting the IS group north and west of Baghdad.

 

Karada's residents have tended to join volunteer brigades loyal to al-Sistani in response to his June 2014 call for a jihad, or holy war, against the IS group after it blitzed across much of western and northern Iraq that year.

 

Their political loyalty also has been to the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, which traditionally backs al-Sistani supporters and criticises militia abuses.

 

Militiamen, meanwhile, are maintaining a daily presence at the site of the Karada bombing.

 

The burned shells of the mall have turned into a makeshift shrine that attracts thousands of visitors every day to commemorate the victims - and to vent their frustration at the government's perceived failure to protect the city against IS militants.

 

Text and video from AP