Iraq govt orders arrest of top Sunni cleric (Harith al-Dari)

Reuters (excerpt) ^ | November 16, 2006

[HAL9000]

BAGHDAD, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The Iraqi government has issued an arrest warrant for the country's most prominent Sunni cleric, Harith al-Dari, state television Iraqiya said.

[Wings-n-Wind]

Arrest this guy....

Paint a crosshares (sic) on Mooky-Ta-daHHH al-Beit Sadder

[Ben Mugged]

This just might trigger the Sunni/Shina civil war everyone has feared.

[jmc1969]

Holy Shit. This is Breaking News. al-Dari is head of the Muslim Scholars Association the most powerful and influental Sunni body.

[NormsRevenge]

Good! and 'bout damn time!

[what's up]

Well, well. Iraqi gov't stepping up to the plate.

[SolidWood]

Every news coming from Iraq is denied, updated, faked, corrected, contradicted etc. all the time. It needs verification and some time to say whether this is true.

[jmc1969]

This is a declaration of civil war by the Shia led government against the Sunni.

I would have no trouble with the Iraqi government taking down Dari who is a monster if they were also willing to take down the Shia monsters like Sadr.

[jmc1969]

If it is true I don't like the timing at all, it looks mainly like the Iraqi government trying to redirect anger after the two massive kidnappings by the Madhi Army onto an enemy that the Shia in Iraq can all rally against.

If the Iraqi Army wants real credibility it will arrest a dozen of Sadr's commanders as well.

[jmc1969]

Iraqi Army and Iraqi government.

[mmyers]

Don't arrest him, shoot him...

[jmc1969]

Dari is most likely in Jordan so that would be a bit of a problem.

[BMC1]

Where's the warrent for SADR? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

[jmc1969]

If the Iraqi government wants to avoid a sectarian war and prove they are actual leaders Sadr his Madhi Army commanders should go.

[ArmstedFragg]

Just a little tiny precursor of what needs to happen. The government needs to stop pussy-footing around with the Sunnis and tell them to either get with the program or leave. No more of this simultaneous negotiation and insurgency stuff.

First he kicks the Sunnis' butts 'til they stop killing Shias, then he goes after the Shia militias because they're no longer needed.

If this proves to be true, it's a nice shot across the bow. Whether the Sunnis are bright enough to recognize it is problematic, but they've always had a highly developed self-preservation instinct.

[Ready4Freddy]

The outstanding Sadr warrant for murder was quashed by the 1st Iraqi govt

[CutePuppy]

This just might trigger the Sunni/Shina civil war everyone has feared.

I wouldn't worry about civil war in Iraq, our current "uncivil war" in US is more brutal and more important to the fate of the world... Despite what our media says, the pace of purging and squaring past debts in Iraq is quite slow and at this rate they won't finish it in quite some time - that's distracting some of our forces from getting the real job of getting al-Qaeda and Iranian personnel and having unnecessary casualties. In civil war we could pick our targets on both sides in the name of peacekeeping and clean up some of the worst elements there, like Sadr etc... That is, of course, if Congress and SCOTUS stop playing Commander in Chiefs, which might happen as soon as they find out they don't have any votes to force anything as we saw some hints of today from Lieberman, Nelson and some of conservative Dems in House.