Bad Badr Baddest
Within the deteriorating maelstrom of the chaotic Iraq, I think it’s no surprise that various ethnic and religious militias are increasing their strength, especially given the overwhelmed US forces’ general retreat into the former Republican Guard barracks and their new-found reliance on Saddam Hussein’s former State torturers to keep “order”. Iraq’s future now seems to be largely a choice between Lebanon (divided between several warlord factions spoonsored by foreign interests) and Somalia (fluctuating warlord rule). My own personal favourites for front-runners in the south, the Badr B Boys, are taking pole position…
The Badr Brigade, a force of lightly armed fighters once said to number 10,000, was supposed to have been disarmed early in the U.S. occupation. But in the wake of the assassination last week of Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir Hakim, killed with scores of others in a car bombing outside the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, the brigade has returned to the streets of this southern city … “The Americans come for 15 minutes and they leave, and they’re afraid to come out at night. You can find the Badr troops in any place, at any time, at any hour.”
Earlier here.