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Massacre, Militia Control, Dominate Iraq Coverage Editor And Publisher | May 28 2006 NEW YORK With belated U.S. press coverage of the Haditha massacre now drawing wide attention -- it's the subject of a seering Washington Post front-page story today by Ellen Knickmeyer, for example -- what may be lost are some of the other remarkable articles from Iraq this week on militia and police control of much of the country. A lengthy New York Times study earlier this week looked at several angles. Now Tom Lasseter, longtime Baghdad reporter for Knight Ridder, observes in his latest piece, "Southern Iraq, long touted as a peaceful region that's likely to be among the first areas returned to Iraqi control, is now dominated by Shiite Muslim warlords and militiamen who are laying the groundwork for an Islamic fundamentalist government, say senior British and Iraqi officials in the area. "The militias appear to be supported by Iranian intelligence or military units that are shipping weapons to the militias in Iraq and providing training for them in Iran. Some British officials believe the Iranians want to hasten the withdrawal of U.S.-backed coalition forces to pave the way for Iran-friendly clerical rule. " To illustrate Iranian influence throughout the area, he mentions that in one government office, an aide approached a Knight Ridder reporter -- presumably the dark-haired Lasseter -- and, mistaking him for an Iranian, said, 'Don't be afraid to speak Farsi in Basra. We are a branch of Iran.'" Lt. Col. David Labouchere, who commands British units in the province of Maysan, north of Basra., told Lasseter, "We get an idea that (military training) courses are being run" in Iran. "People are training on the other side of the border and then coming back." American military officials in Baghdad "often point to the relatively low number of attacks against British soldiers in southern Iraq as proof that much of the country is stable," Lasseter observes. But last month, he points out, at least 200 people were killed in Basra, almost all of them by militia violence, according to an Iraqi Defense Ministry official there. Meanwhile, in the Post, Knickmeyer reports today, "Witnesses to the slaying of 24 Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in the western town of Haditha say the Americans shot men, women and children at close range in retaliation for the death of a Marine lance corporal in a roadside bombing." Then, adding fresh details: "The remains of the 24 lie today in a cemetery called Martyrs' Graveyard. Stray dogs scrounge in the deserted homes. 'Democracy assassinated the family that was here,' graffiti on one of the houses declared. "The insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq said it sent copies of the journalism student's videotape to mosques in Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, using the killings of the women and children to recruit fighters. "After Haditha leaders complained, the Marines paid compensation put variously by townspeople at $1,500 or $2,500 for each of the 15 men, women and children killed in the first two houses. They refused to pay for the nine other men killed, insisting that they were insurgents. Officials familiar with the investigations said it is now believed that the nine were innocent victims. By some accounts, a 25th person, the father of the four brothers killed together, was also killed." ---------------------------------------------------
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