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April 10, 2003
US-backed leaders may have been murdered in Najaf
Note: I am referring to several news sources in this post, most of which seem to have different spellings for the names of the people they are reporting on. Please excuse any confusion this may cause
A very strange story is coming out of Iraq - Arab News is reporting that "[f]ormer Iraqi general Nizar Al-Khazaraji and Islamic scholar Majid Al-Khoi’i have both been executed by Iraqi residents of Najaf," along with an American soldier who was serving as their bodyguard. The reports indicates that the two men had been supported by the American government as possible leaders for Najaf, and that after they were killed, their bodies were futher mutilated by the crowd. Reports so far have been somewhat conflicting - particularly in the identity of who was killed.
In an article published earlier by the Arab News, prior to the murders, the men represented two of the three opposition movements that were vying for control of the city:
According to a well-known Najaf resident, business owner and local leader, who asked that he not be further identified, there are now three different opposition movements vying for control in the city, each under a different leader. He gave an indication of what may lie ahead for Iraq’s disunited people.
According to this source, Nizar Al-Khazraji, a general in Saddam’s Ministry of Defense who defected in the 1990s and has been living in Denmark, is one of them. He is a native of Najaf. He is America’s number one choice. The leader of the second movement is Majid Al-Khoi’i, an Islamic scholar who, after 1991, went to the US after Saddam ordered his death.
Al-Khazraji has a very interesting history, and has been the subject of many stories in the last two months. Until March 17th, he had been under house arrest in Denmark as the result of alleged war crimes and possible role in the gassing of Kurds. At that point, he simply disappeared, and even his son seemed to have no idea where he might have gone.
The circumstances around former Gen. Nizar al-Khazraji's disappearance were murky and few details were released. He had been under house arrest in his adopted country of Denmark since November.
Prosecutor Birgitte Vestberg is investigating claims that al-Khazraji, a former Iraqi army chief of staff, was responsible for poison gas attacks in northern Iraq in 1988 that killed more than 5,000 Kurds.
[...]
Under the Geneva Conventions, which calls for countries to prosecute or expel war criminals, Denmark is obligated to investigate claims he was involved in the poison gas attack.
On April 2, Reuters reported that Denmark was asking the US for help in locating al-Kazraji:
In a letter to U.S. Ambassador Stuart Bernstein, Justice Minister Lene Espersen cited several Danish newspaper articles suggesting that the Central Intelligence Agency may have been involved.
"Against this background...I kindly ask you to provide me with any information from relevant American authorities on the circumstances under which Khazraji disappeared and his whereabouts since March 17, 2003," she wrote.
Espersen noted in her letter that the disappearance had been the subject of intense debate in Danish media and in parliament. She said she was enclosing a selection of newspaper articles offering theories on what had happened to Khazraji.
Then on the 6th, South Africa's News24.com reported that al-Khazraji had escaped from Denmark with the help of the CIA, because American officials considered him a potential successor to Saddam Hussein.
Former Iraqi General Nizar al-Khazraji, touted as a possible successor to President Saddam Hussein, is now in Kuwait after escaping from Denmark last month with the help of the CIA the Danish daily Politiken reported on Sunday.
Citing a report by the former head of the CIA's counter-terrorism department - a copy of which was obtained by the paper. Apparently the US sees Khazraji as their preferred successor for Saddam in a post-war Iraq, a view that is not shared by the Pentagon.
The ex-CIA official, who completed the confidential report on March 28, said the US intelligence services secretly extracted Khazraji and that he was currently helping US forces in the war against Baghdad.
Oddly -- or perhaps not -- none of this appears to have been covered in any of the major US news sources - at least not that Google News can find.
The BBC is reporting the death of Abdul Majid al-Khoei:
Assailants armed with knives attacked Abdul Majid al-Khoei inside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf - one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims, Fadhel Milani told BBC News Online.
A colleague who had been accompanying Mr Khoei confirmed his murder in a telephone call to the foundation, Dr Milani said.
His murder has been "strongly condemned" by the Bush administration. Spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said it was a reminder of "how dangerous the situation is inside Iraq".[...]
Although Mr Khoei was usually accompanied by coalition forces, the officers do not enter the mosque and so were unable to rescue him, Dr Milani said.
Dr Milani said that he believed Mr Khoei's association with the coalition forces had provoked the attack, saying "certain people did not want him in that role".
He said other colleagues from London would now "think twice" before returning to Iraq.
The Associated Press described the attacks this way. Note that no mention of Al-Khazraji is made:
Witnesses told reporters that a meeting was being held among leading mullahs about how to control the shrine, which had been under the control of the hated Haider al-Kadar, of Saddam's Ministry of Religion.
In a gesture of reconciliation, al-Kadar was accompanied to the shrine by Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a high-ranking Shiite cleric and son of one of the religion's most prominent ayatollahs, or spiritual leaders. He had just returned a week ago from exile in London to help restore order after the city was liberated by U.S. troops.
When the two men appeared at the shrine, members of another faction loyal to a different mullah, Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, verbally assailed al-Kadar.
"Al-Kadar was an animal," said Adil Adnan al-Moussawi, 25, who witnessed the confrontation.
Apparently feeling threatened, al-Khoei pulled a gun and fired one or two shots. There were conflicting accounts over whether he fired the bullets into the air, or in the crowd.
Both men were then rushed by the crowd and hacked to death with swords and knives, the witnesses said.
This looks to be a story that will need to be watched - I'll update further when I get more information. I suspect, however, that both this kind of violence - and note that the reported victims of the killings were both supported by the US - and this kind of confusion is something that, sadly, may become more commonplace as the we go forward from here.
Posted by thorswitch at April 10, 2003 01:45 PM
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