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Calm in Basra May Offer A Guide for Iraqi Security
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At night, across the city, it has become routine to see pickup trucks filled with Iraqi army soldiers and police patrolling main roads. Soldiers have swiftly detained unruly youths. "A few days ago, we sold religious songs and Iraqi army soldiers came by and argued with us," said Ali Abdullah, a CD vendor on Basra's crowded al-Jazaar Street. "They beat up another vendor for selling the songs. They thought he was a militiaman."
The tough tactics underscored the fragile nature of Basra's security. Sadr's followers have accused the Iraqi army of being proxy fighters for the Shiite rivals seeking to weaken Sadr's movement before provincial elections scheduled for October.
Dayni is cautious when he speaks about the Sadrists. He said the Iraqi army fought only those militiamen who no longer obeyed Sadr. "We respect the Sadrist movement. They have a great history in Iraq," Dayni said. "We are not linked to any political party."
But many Iraqi soldiers are seen as partisan. Two Iraqi soldiers seated in a Humvee, near a billboard where Sadr's face had been ripped apart, said they feared returning to Baghdad. Both lived in Sadr City. They said they haven't told their neighbors that they are soldiers. Whenever they go home they wear civilian clothes.
One soldier they knew was killed by Mahdi Army militiamen in Sadr City last month, they said. Both asked that their names not be used, fearing persecution by militiamen.
"I didn't leave my house. I spent the whole time with my family," said one soldier, who had returned 10 days earlier from a break in Sadr City. "I would be killed if they knew."
Dayni himself is on a Mahdi Army death list in his Baghdad neighborhood of Amin. He said he hadn't seen his family in 77 days.
The convoy entered the neighborhood of Jumeila, where graffiti on the walls praised Sadr and denounced Maliki. "We are concerned, because the militias might reappear again with different names, especially when the Iraqi army leaves," said Osama Jassim, 28, who runs a cafeteria at Basra University.
Dayni ordered the convoy to stop at the Jubaila Center, a glittering department store. Once, it was a prime kidnapping zone. In its women's section, the store had stocked only black Islamic head-to-ankle abayas so as not to offend the Islamists. Now, families freely shop late into the evening. The women's section is filled with colorful attire.
"You can't compare it to the past," said Rawaa Mahdi, 23, the manager, as Dayni smiled.
But an element of the past lingered. One employee said that before the offensive, he couldn't utter a word of English because the militiamen would attack him for being Westernized. When asked for his name, the employee declined.
"They can still target me," he said.
