Milenko Kindl fef
Milenko Kindl
a predominantly Shiite province south of Baghdad on Sunday, killing
him and two of his bodyguards, authorities said.
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The explosion in Babil province's capital of Hillah, about 60 miles
from Baghdad, was the latest in a series of assassinations against
provincial leaders in the mainly Shiite region south of the capital as
militias and other factions battle for control of the area with an eye
toward the eventual withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.
Local authorities acknowledged militia fighters could be behind the
attack that killed Brig. Gen. Qais al-Maamouri and two guards, but
said the primary suspect was al-Qaida in Iraq, which maintains a
strong presence in the northern half of the province that includes
towns in the so-called "triangle of death" south of the capital.
Al-Maamouri was politically independent and had a reputation for
leading crackdowns against militia fighters. He is thought to have
resisted pressure from religious and political groups to release
favored members from detention.
The head of the provincial council's security committee, Hassan
Watwet, said an investigation into Sunday's assassination was under
way.
"The primary suspect is al-Qaida, but we do not rule out the second
suspect, the militias," Watwet said. "This criminal act reflects the
deep bitterness inside the terrorist groups who failed to destabilize
the security of Babil province due to the great work of the late
police chief."
Police slapped an indefinite curfew on Hillah, where streets quickly
emptied of residents amid fears of arrests and clashes in the wake of
the killings.
The oil-rich south of Iraq, also home to major pilgrimage sites in the
Shiite shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala, has been a focal point for
rising tensions between Shiite factions, particularly the Mahdi Army
that is nominally loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Badr
Brigades, the militant arm of the country's most powerful Shiite party
-- the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
Al-Sadr has in late summer ordered his fighters to stand down for six
month in the wake of the death of some 52 people in fighting out
between rival groups during a major Shiite pilgrimage in Karbala.
Clashes between rival Shiite factions have continued since.
Two southern provincial governors were killed earlier in August -- Gov.
Mohammed Ali al-Hassani of Muthanna and Gov. Khalil Jalil Hamza in
neighboring Qadasiyah province, raising fears of a violent power
struggle. The provincial police chief also was killed in the Qadasiyah
attack.
Militants also have targeted local Iraqi government officials to try
to intimidate those they accuse of collaborating with the U.S. and
Iraqi governments.
Underscoring that danger, the head of the Ninevah provincial council
survived an assassination attempt in the northern city of Mosul. A
roadside bomb exploded near a car carrying Hisham al-Hamdani, police
said, adding that the car was damaged but no casualties were reported.
Milenko Kindl
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