"'It is all planned by the Americans who now want the Kurds to be involved in the sectarian fighting they engineered," he added.
"Many analysts in Baghdad believe the U.S. military is attempting to involve the Kurds in the escalating conflict by sending armed groups and death squads of other sects or ethnicities to engage the Kurdish forces in Baghdad in order to drag them into the conflict.
"However, the Kurds are reportedly attempting to not take sides and to remain neutral in the sectarian conflict, although most of them are Sunnis.
"IPS sources in Baghdad believe that bringing the Kurds into Baghdad in itself is the beginning of their participation in the sectarian violence, especially when they are attacked by Shiite militias on occasion.
"Others believe that the divide and conquer strategy by the U.S. military and U.S.-backed Iraqi politicians is being implemented across much of Baghdad.
"'The western half of Baghdad that holds the name of al-Karkh is inhabited by a majority of Sunni Arabs," Mohammad Shakir, a historian from the Dora region of Baghdad, told IPS. "But there are also a variety of Kurds and Shiite Arabs there, as is the case in most parts of Iraq where sects lived together in relative peace for centuries. This sectarian fighting was ignited by Iraqi politicians who came with the U.S. occupation to dominate power in Iraq."
"Kassim Awadi, an Iraqi political analyst in Baghdad, told IPS: "Although not likely to take place in the near future, the conflict between Kurds and the Shia fighters who are conducting an Iranian agenda could spread."
"'It seems to me that no sect will keep away from the civil war and it is not in the interest of either the U.S. occupation or Iran that any part of Iraq would stay stable," Awadi explained in an interview at his office. "The story of the fighting between Kurdish units and [Mehdi army] police units is not a strange one as the agendas for each party are completely different and the conflicts are definitely going to take place sooner or later if [Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki's government is to stay in power."
"Former Iraqi Army General Ahmed Khidir told IPS that he believes the violence in Baghdad is now permanent because occupation forces lost control long ago and are now completely reliant on various militias.
"'The U.S. army and the U.S. media are full of lies concerning being impartial, and the truth is that the Americans are working together with many armed groups who conduct massive killings," Khidir said. "One can clearly see the mass destruction policy towards Sunni areas while military operations against Shiite death squads are [restrained] and largely impotent."
(*Ali, our correspondent in Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based specialist writer on Iraq who travels extensively in the region)
From InterPress Service via Dahr Jamail's listserve
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