Senior Iraqi officer killed while mediating tribal dispute in Dhi Qar

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior Iraqi officer was killed on Wednesday while mediating to resolve a tribal conflict in Iraq's oil-rich south, where tribal clashes continue to loom and take lives.

General Brigadier and the head of the Intelligence Department of the Sumer Operation Command, Ali Jamil Abd Khalaf, was killed during the resolution of a tribal dispute in Dhi Qar's al-Shatra district, Iraq’s Security Media Cell said in a tweet.  

It is unclear what the fight was about, but state media reported that the clashes between the tribes continued after Jamil’s death.

Rudaw English reached out to Dhi Qar police’s media office to obtain details on the dispute but they were not immediately available. 

However, a local source told Rudaw on Wednesday that the fight reportedly erupted between al-Malhan and Bni Zaid tribes after the latter claimed that the former had set a property of Bni Zaid’s ablaze earlier in the week. 

A member of al-Malhan’s tribe had been reportedly killed, the source added. 

The Iraqi interior ministry in a statement announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for those involved in the murder of Jamil.

The Iraqi forces arrested 22 suspects in the case, seizing a number of weapons, the media cell said early Thursday.  

Deadly tribal clashes became common in the war-torn country after the toppling of Iraq’s former president Saddam Hussein in 2003, when tribal justice gained preference over courts and police, mainly in central and southern Iraq.

When Hussein started to lose control in the last few years of his rule, he gave tribes greater importance and pandered to their conservatism, Ruba Ali Al-Hassani, postdoctoral research associate at Lancaster University and research consultant at King’s College London, told Rudaw English over WhatsApp on Wednesday.

“After 2003, they [tribes] grew more empowered, especially when they felt the need to fill in the political and security vacuum. Knowing how much they need tribes for such purposes, if not more, politicians in Iraq have enabled the further empowerment and armament of tribes,” Ali added.

Tribes became powerful actors with their own moral and judicial codes which they used to resolve personal conflicts and fights, to avoid turning to authorities.

“People also do not trust security forces or the government as much and [they] would rather get their tribes’ support since they are more approachable and 'trustworthy,'” Hayder al-Shakeri, research associate at Chatham House told Rudaw English via WhatsApp.

Tribes often solve matters through tribal customary law, known as urf in Arabic, which is based on a system of collective honor and responsibility, whereby disputes are resolved through the restoration of equilibrium by reciprocity and compensation.

Tribal practices, procedures, and remedies are influenced by various factors, including the reason behind the fight, the extent of injury sustained, the social status of involved tribes, the degree of influence of the tribal leader, sex, and social status of the perpetrator and the victim. The history of the feud between the tribes involved also plays a crucial role.

Awash with a huge cache of arms and weapons, tribal leaders often gather to settle erupting fights, which usually vary from petty squabbling between children, offending the beliefs of others, and even conflict over sewage. Their verdict often quashes the law.

“These tribes are heavily armed and emboldened, and insist upon resolving their own issues through traditional means, rather than through institutional channels,” Ali stated.

Shakeri related the strength and power of the tribes to “the absence of accountability in Iraq, where many actors decide to play the game according to their own rules,” he noted.

Tribal disputes can run for months, at times, years, and usually leave several people dead, often residents of the area who get caught in the middle of the fights.

Last year, a child was killed and four people were wounded when two tribes traded fire with Kalashnikovs and rockets in a dispute over a 1,000 Iraqi dinar ($0.68 cents).

Updated at 8:26 am on April 21 with the arrest announcement