The root cause behind sectarian violence in Iraq

“Insecurity in Iraq is a deeply-rooted phenomenon. The root of insecurity in Iraq lies in the occupation of this country by foreigners,” Zolqadr said. “If Iraq is to become secure, there will be no room for the occupiers”.
This article was written a few years ago but the contents are still relevant.
The arrest of two British agents disguised as Shiite “terrorists” with a car full of explosives in Basra suggests that British occupation forces are involved in Iraq’s so-called sectarian bombings, which, until now have been unclaimed and unexplained acts of senseless violence.

After shooting and killing Iraqi police and civilians in Basra, two British agents from the Special Air Service (SAS) or a branch organization of the special forces, disguised as suicide bombers from the Mehdi Army, were caught “red-handed” in a car loaded with explosives. After failing to secure the release from the local police of their two captured agents through negotiations, British forces took extraordinary action and bulldozed the prison in Basra and threatened the Iraqi police officers at gunpoint until their agents of terror were turned over.

While the front pages of British papers on Sept. 20 carried photos of a burning tank involved in the first attempt to release the men, the much more significant – but largely obscured – story was in thedetails of the two British agents “whose arrest set Basra ablaze,” as the Daily Mail wrote.

The International Herald Tribune, the American-based paper published by The New York Times, did not even mention the important events in Basra that appear to have exposed an actual source of the so-called sectarian terrorism in Iraq. The Washington Post reported that the two Britons had been accused “of shooting at Iraqi forces or trying to plant explosives.” The governor of Basra, Mohammed al-Waili, said the British agents had been arrested after shooting two policemen and killing one.“They were driving a civilian car and were dressed in civilian clothes when a shooting took place between them and Iraqi patrols,” an official said. “We are investigating and an Iraqi judge is on the case questioning them.”

“The men were said to have had guns and explosives with them,” the BBC and British papers reported. Paul Wood of the BBC said the two British agents were probably on a covert mission to get intelligence needed to stop further attacks on British troops. “Their weapons, explosives and communications gear are standard kit for British special forces,” Wood said. He did not mention if that was also the case with their wigs or Arab clothing.

However, it seems highly unlikely that the two non-Arab British agents with wigs could have gotten past the front door in any infiltration attempt. Their disguises would have failed to fool any Iraqi who got close enough to speak with them.

In a statement, British Brigadier John Lorimer said that under Iraqi law the “soldiers” should have been handed over to coalition authorities. When negotiations failed to secure the release of the British agents, a British armoured personnel carrier flattened a wall of the prison. The attack on the prison involved a dozen military vehicles and helicopters. The British command was clearly urgently concerned about what the men might have revealed to Iraqi police under interrogation.

Gov. al-Waili called the operation a “barbaric act of aggression.”

While the significance of the British terrorists in disguise was not discussed in the mainstream media, it was more fully investigated by Socialist Worker, an on-line news site of the Socialist Party of Britain.
Sheikh Hassan al-Zarqani, a Basra-based spokesperson for rebel Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, told Socialist Worker that the two British agents had been armed with explosives and a remote control detonator.
The two bearded British agents had been wearing black wigs and disguised as members of Sadr’s militia, the Mehdi Army, when they were caught. This is a commonly employed tactic of “false flag terrorism” often used by the Israeli secret services in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Arab disguises are meant to guarantee that eyewitnesses of whatever terror operation the men were involved in saying that it been carried out by Iraqis.The incident in Basra, according to Sheikh Hassan, began when a senior official of Sadr’s movement, Sheikh Ahmad Fartusi, was arrested on Sunday, Sept. 18.

“We called a protest outside the mayor’s office on Monday demanding the Sheikh be released,” Hassan said. “This protest was peaceful.“But events in our city took a sinister turn when the police tried to stop two men dressed as members of the Mehdi Army driving near the protest. The men opened fire on the police and passers-by. After a car chase they were arrested,” Hassan said.

“What our police found in their car was very disturbing – weapons, explosives and a remote control detonator,” he said. “These are the weapons of terrorists. We believe these soldiers were planning an attack on a market or other civilian targets, and thanks be to God, they were stopped and countless lives were saved.

"The two men were taken to the police station to answer questions about their activities. That afternoon the British army came in tanks and armored cars demanding the two be released..“The police refused as they were considered to be planning terrorist attacks, and as they were disguised as members of the Mehdi Army, the police wanted to know who their target was.
“Thousands of people gathered to defend the police station. British troops opened fire and the crowds responded with stones and firebombs.“Why were these men dressed as Mehdi Army?” Hassan asked. “Why were they carrying explosives and where were they planning to detonate their bomb?"

"Were they planning an outrage so that they could create tensions with other communities? Were they going to kill innocent people to put the blame on Al Qaida, who do not have any support in our city?

“The soldiers drove a tank into the police station and threatened to kill the police officers if they did not hand over the two terrorists,” Hassan said. “It is only then, to save any further loss of life, that the men were released.”

Five days before the arrest of the two British agents in Basra,Al Jazeera had reported on the growing suspicion that the occupation forces are the real perpetrators of bomb attacks in Iraq in an interview with Iran’s top military commander, Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr.

Zolqadr said the United States and Israel were behind the so-called sectarian bombing attacks that have killed thousands of civilians in Iraq.The occupation forces, Zolqadr told senior officials, need these attacks to justify the continuation of their military presence in Iraq.

“The Americans blame weak and feeble groups in Iraq for insecurity in this country. We do not believe this and we have information that the insecurity has its roots in the activities of American and Israeli spies,” Zolqadr said.

“Insecurity in Iraq is a deeply-rooted phenomenon. The root of insecurity in Iraq lies in the occupation of this country by foreigners,” Zolqadr said. “If Iraq is to become secure, there will be no room for the occupiers”.

The U.S. wanted to remain in Iraq to “plunder the country’s wealth, bring the Middle East under its control, and create security for Israel, which is on the verge of annihilation,” according to Zolqadr.
The most obvious strategy of the “false flag” terrorism is to foment civil strife in Iraq leading to the “Balkanization” of the state into three ethnic statelets, as was done with the former Yugoslavia.
British forces have employed such “false flag” terror tactics to advance the “divide and conquer” strategy in other conflicts in the past...
(Originally posted on facebook in July 2016)