Quieting Mean Streets

BAGHDAD—Some call the once well-heeled Sadiyah neighborhood one of the last bastions where "hard core" sectarian cleansing is underway in the city. A retirement community for Iraqi generals in the Saddam era, these streets dotted with bombed-out beauty salons and shuttered Internet cafes now have became part of what senior U.S. military officials have taken to calling the "realty business" of the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia ostensibly loyal to firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The neighborhood, once majority Sunni, now may be over 60 percent Shiite—and 30 percent vacant. That demographic shift is due in no small part to the Shiite men in black BMW sedans who would pull up to homes in the middle of the night, order Sunnis out, and shepherd in Shiite families. Those cars were often escorted by the Ministry of Interior's national police unit known as the Wolf Brigade, a Shiite force notorious for kidnapping, murder, and other violence, according to U.S. military officials. In response, some Sunni residents turned to insurgents, including the terrorist group known as al Qaeda in Iraq, for protection or to inflict retribution.

This lethal mix—Shiite thugs and Sunni terrorists—has been the fuel for some of the worst violence across the capital, particularly in mixed neighborhoods. Now, there is an effort underway in Sadiyah to change the destructive dynamics and to stabilize a mixed neighborhood by ridding it of both al Qaeda in Iraq and Shiite militia elements. It is a crucial test of whether it is possible for mixed neighborhoods to exist in Baghdad and whether there is a will for political reconciliation.

Local volunteers. For now, neighborhood Sunnis, aided by the U.S. military, have established a group of about 240 "local security volunteers," with plans to soon double in size. They call themselves the Sadiyah Guardians and wear khaki uniforms with yellow-and-black patches modeled on those of the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division, which has responsibility for security in Baghdad. They are paid by the U.S. military the equivalent of a policeman's salary, and they bring their own weapons. Since mid-September when the LSVs, as the U.S. soldiers call them, started manning checkpoints, dozens of stores have opened.

U.S. commanders see this neighborhood and its local security volunteers as a bellwether. "If this goes well, it will prove to be a model for Baghdad, maybe for all of Iraq," says Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division and of the Multinational Division Baghdad. "If it gets screwed up, this is going to be hard for months and months."

And it is being watched, sometimes skeptically, by Iraqis, since reconciliation efforts so far have focused on majority-Sunni areas, such as Anbar province. "Iraqis discount the Anbar awakening because it's a homogenous area with no sectarian dynamics," says Fil. "They may be pleased to see it, but it is not being considered in the mind of Iraqis to be a prototype."

Too close. What happens in Sadiyah also matters to the Shiite-led government, which has deep-seated reservations about empowering armed Sunni groups. The government remains reluctant to delegate any authority to them, particularly in an area that is considered key real estate. "Shia think Sunnis are a little too close to the center of town," says Lt. Col. George Glaze, commander of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, which has responsibility for the area. "They think that if Sadiyah falls, other areas will, too."

Some in the U.S. military have their own reservations, particularly about being seen as inadvertent tools of Sunnis out to regain lost power. "The Sunnis are willing to talk to us—and use us to whatever advantage they can," says a U.S. Army officer. The trick, he adds, is for the U.S. military to make sure that "it doesn't get used."

To that end, the U.S. military carefully screens the local security volunteers, keeping files of fingerprints and biometric measurements, particularly since the ultimate aim is to integrate them into the Iraqi security forces. When charges surfaced recently accusing local security volunteers of robbery, rape, and murder, the U.S. military consulted its biometric data to reassure the government that the culprits were not Sunni volunteers.

Despite these measures, American military officials say that a government reconciliation committee has been slow to approve the Sunni nominees that the U.S. military wants to integrate into the Iraqi security forces. Though some have garnered slots in the police training academy, it has been slow going. "I do see what appears to be foot-dragging," says Col. Ricky Gibbs, who commands the 4th Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division.