Sunnis in Iraq regard Trump forces as lesser of two evils
As a proud resident of the Baghdad district of Adhamiyah, Mahmoud Obeidi used to revel in its reputation as a hotbed of resistance to Iraq’s US occupation.
A wealthy Sunni enclave on the banks of the Tigris, his neighbourhood was once home to the elite of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party, and when America invaded in 2003, it was the first district of Baghdad to rebel.
Soon it styled itself the “Graveyard of the Americans”, with disgruntled ex-Ba’athists mounting daily street battles against US patrols.
“When we all lost our jobs after Saddam’s fall, life became very hard for us,” said Mr Obeidi, 55, who, like many Adhamiyah residents, was employed in Saddam’s intelligence service. “We supported the fight against the US with all our hearts.”
A decade on, however, Mr Obeidi has become an unlikely voice for Iraq’s US military presence to remain.
Pressure on America to leave has grown after the assassination of Iran’s general Qassim Soleimani by a US drone strike in Baghdad two weeks ago. But a withdrawal is regarded with horror by many Sunnis who, for all their past quarrels with the US, see it as very much the lesser of two evils compared to Tehran.
“If the US leaves, we will be an even easier bite for the Iranians,” Mr Obeidi, who now scrapes a living running a food stand, told The Sunday Telegraph.
“We are no big fans of the US, but they should not leave until such time as the Iranians leave us alone.”
Mr Obeidi spoke out amid a looming showdown over the 5,000-strong US troop presence, whose main base west of Baghdad was targeted by Iranian missiles 11 days ago. Officially, the troops are only in Iraq to help in the ongoing fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), but in retaliation for Mr Soleimani’s death, Tehran has pressurised Baghdad to expel them. Already, pro-Iranian factions in Iraq’s Shia-dominated government have passed a nonbinding vote in parliament urging the troops’ expulsion.
Privately, however, Iraqi officials fear a pull-out by Washington will hand Tehran even greater influence over the country’s affairs. That fear is expressed rather more openly in Sunni communities, who make up a third of Iraq’s 38million population. Having
Well, bless me
ruled the roost in Saddam’s time, they now claim to be treated like secondclass citizens by the Shia government.
Nowhere is that truer than in Adhamiyah, a once-prosperous district of Beverley Hills-style mansions.
During the height of the anti-US insurgency, it also became a sectarian battleground, as local Sunni fighters, backed by extremists from al-Qaeda, waged a savage war of tit-for-tat killings against Shia militias bankrolled by Tehran. By 2007, as the Shia militias began to get the upper hand, the US military built a Belfaststyle “Peace Wall” to keep Adhamiyah separate from neighbouring Shia districts. But while the 12ft barrier has since been dismantled, the memories of that time have stayed.
Nearly everybody in Adhamiyah, for example, has a story about losing a friend or relative to the Shia militias, which were trained and bankrolled by Mr Soleimani’s Revolutionary Guard.
“Qassim Soleimani helped destroy this country, and turned it into the tail of Iran,” said Ayad Salman, who owns a shop in a square in Adhamiyah where Saddam made his final public appearance during the invasion.
“Saddam looked after us and made Iraq respected by its neighbours – now they are all eating away at us. The US has to stay, as the Iraqi government is now on the side of Iran.”
It is not just grizzled ex-Ba’athists who rejoiced at Mr Soleimani’s passing. So too did protesters in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, who have been demonstrating since October for better public services and an end to corruption in government.
While the crowds are mainly Shia, more than 450 have been shot dead during clashes with security forces. Washington has blamed some of the deaths on Shia militia snipers, allegedly acting on Tehran’s orders to stop an “Arab Spring”-style uprising.
‘Qassim Soleimani helped destroy this country and turned it into the tail of Iran. Saddam looked after us and made Iraq respected’
“Everybody was happy about Soleimani being killed, although it would have been nicer if we Iraqis could have done it ourselves,” said Salim Sadeq Muassim, a retired soldier.
“We need US troops to stay because they are preserving our soul from militia control – if they left now, the militias would shoot us all here.”
On Friday night violence in Tahrir Square flared again, with two protesters shot dead.
As of yet, no time frame has been set for any final decision on the US deployment.
So far, US officials have rejected the move, pointing out that it could damage the fight against Isil.
IAdel Abdul Mahdi, Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, who took up his post after his predecessor resigned over the shooting of protesters, said last week that the decision should be made by his successor, who may not be in place for months.
Many see that as a simply a way of kicking the matter into the long grass – a fudge that could anger Tehran, but will be welcome in America’s former “graveyard” in Adhamiyah.
“We need the US here until we get a leader who can rule Iraq without interference from others,” said Abu Mustafa, a cigarette vendor. By that criteria, however, America could be here for many more years to come.