Irak: Nach dem Chaos ist vor dem Chaos?

--- Die Medien und Nachrichtenagenturen sind sich noch nicht ganz einig, wie sie die Lage im Irak beurteilen sollen. So heißt es in Spiegel Online: Der Irak droht drei Monate vor der geplanten Machtübergabe der Besatzer in einem blutigen Chaos zu versinken. Nach heftigen Kämpfen mit radikalen Schiiten haben die US-Truppen auch im so genannten sunnitischen Dreieck schwere Verluste erlitten. Zwölf Marines kamen ums Leben. Nach anderen Berichten ist das Chaos aber bereits voll im Gange und die Opferzahl auf Seiten der Koalition schon größer. So rechnet die Washington Post vor: In addition to Tuesday's casualties, the U.S. military reported that five Marines were killed Monday -- one in Fallujah and the others on the western outskirts of Baghdad -- and five Army soldiers were killed between Sunday and Tuesday in attacks in Kirkuk, Mosul and a Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Baghdad. Iraqi casualty figures were incomplete and impossible to verify, but hospital officials have reported dozens killed in clashes in Baghdad and central and southern Iraq since the weekend. Sources quoted by the Associated Press put the number of Iraqi dead at more than 60. Einig sind sich die Beobachter jedenfalls, dass der Krieg wieder im vollen Gange ist: It was one of the most violent days in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, with half a dozen cities ignited. One of the biggest questions at day's end was the role of most of the majority Shiites previously thought to be relatively sympathetic to American goals. The heaviest fighting raged in Falluja and Ramadi, strongholds of the Sunni minority favored by Mr. Hussein that have been flash points of anti-American resistance.

Das bestätigt auch der Blogger Zeyad mit Eindrücken von Vorort: The situation in Baghdad looks the same as it was in the couple of days before the war last year. Streets are almost empty by seven in the evening, a whole lot of Baghdadis have remained home yesterday for fear of getting cut off from their neighbourhoods in event of Americans blocking off streets or something. There was an ongoing military operation very close to our neighbourhood almost all of Monday night till midday. At one point I imagined that the Apaches were landing on our roof (that was after I published the previous post), and explosions kept rocking our house which brought back uncanny memories of last April 10th when there was a fierce confrontation between Fedayeen and advancing Americans just outside our doorsteps. Seiner Ansicht nach hat der "junge Wilde" al-Sadr auch viele Städte und Gemeinden längst unterwandert: Of course, Sadr has set up offices in almost every city, town, and village in the south. And I have mentioned earlier that they had assumed full control over my small village where I work in the Basrah governorate weeks ago, terrorizing IP officers, civil servants, and doctors but nobody was listening.

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