BAGHDAD (AP) — The top U.S. commander has shifted the focus from al-Qaida to Iranian-backed "special groups" as the main threat to a democratic Iraq — a significant change that reflects both the complexity of the war and its changing nature.<\/p>\n
The shift was articulated this week in Washington by Gen. David Petraeus, who told Congress that "unchecked, the special groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq."<\/p>\n
Before, American commanders have called al-Qaida the greatest threat.<\/p>\n
There is little doubt that Shiite extremists fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces have received Iranian weapons, although Iran's government denies supplying them.<\/p>\n
But Petraeus' comments obscure the fact that the United States has waded into a monumental power struggle within the majority Shiite community — and crucially, that both sides in that struggle, not just the "special groups," maintain close ties to Iran.<\/p>\n
The power struggle is only the latest stage in a decades-long competition between the families of the current top Shiite players: anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, whose political party in Iraq works closely with the U.S. despite its links to Iran.<\/p>\n
That intra-Shiite competition is likely to continue — sometimes violently — regardless of whether the Iraqi government and its U.S. backers force al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army militia or not. In military parlance, the term "special groups" refers to presumed breakaway Mahdi factions whose main sponsor is Iran.<\/p>\n
American lawmakers expressed frustration this week because Petraeus offered no assurances that an end to the war is near.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BAGHDAD (AP) — The top U.S. commander has shifted the focus from al-Qaida to Iranian-backed “special groups” as the main threat to a democratic Iraq — a significant change that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[175],"class_list":["post-5088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-iran-a-world","tag-updated"],"yoast_head":"\n