SUMMARY: A special international tribunal has found a Hezbollah agent guilty of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in a deadly blast 15 years ago. Although the decision doesn’t implicate Hezbollah explicitly, it comes at a tense moment for the U.S.-designated terror group, on whom political and financial pressure is growing. Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports from Beirut.
SUMMARY: Shia teenagers were killed by a suicide bomber at an education center in Kabul on Wednesday. Meanwhile, residents of the city of Ghazni began to pick up the pieces after a five-day siege between the Taliban and the Afghan Army. Nick Schifrin discusses the attacks and Taliban tactics with Sultan Faizy, Kabul bureau chief for IHA Network, and former Defense Department official David Sedney.
SUMMARY: When the Islamic State group took over parts of Iraq, the government turned to Iran and Iraqi citizens for help. Special correspondent Jane Arraf visits a training center of volunteers who were inspired by Iran’s Supreme Leader, and a Shia community that’s sending its young men to battle.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): We turn now to Iraq, and the war against the Islamic State group, where Iraqi Shia militia, many backed by Iran, are often the ones leading the fight.
That activity was on display most recently in Tikrit, where the Shia were accused of looting and atrocities after retaking the Sunni Muslim city.
These militia have a long, bloody history with American forces, too.
The top American commander for the region spoke recently at a Senate hearing.
GEN. LLOYD AUSTIN, Commander, U.S. Central Command: I would like just to highlight, sir, that three tours in Iraq commanding troops who were brutalized by some of these Shia militias, I will not, and I hope we never coordinate or cooperate with the Shia militias.
GWEN IFILL: In the final report in her series from Iraq, NewsHour special correspondent Jane Arraf traveled south of Baghdad, where she was granted special access to the Shia militia group and its training operation.
JANE ARRAF, Special Correspondent: These men have answered a call by Iraq’s most revered Shia religious leader to fight the Islamic State group.
But this brigade’s inspiration is Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Their month-long training starts with the basics. “This is an automatic Kalashnikov,” instructor Ali Hussein tells them. “It’s a Russian-made rifle with the best mechanism in the world.”
When the I.S. group, known here as Da’esh, took over Mosul last year, entire divisions of the Iraqi army collapsed. The Iraqi government turned to Iran and Iraqi citizens for help. There are at least four other training centers like this in Nasiriyah. In this one alone, they have trained 2,000 fighters. Most of them are young men, but the only real requirement is a willingness to fight.
More than 100,000 men joined up after the Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa, calling on those who could to join the fight. Nasiriyah, 200 miles south of Baghdad, has a long history of fighting. At 17, Ali Jabber Hussein is the youngest recruit here. His father was wounded fighting against Saddam Hussein’s forces. Two of his uncles were killed.
SUMMARY: Yemen’s deadliest terror attack in decades left hundreds of casualties. Judy Woodruff talks to Nabeel Khoury, a former State Department official in Yemen, about rising violence, ethnic tensions and power struggles in that country.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): We want to take a closer look at today’s violence in Yemen and what it says about the state of that region.
Joining me now is Nabeel Khoury. He had a career in the Foreign Service and was the deputy chief of mission in Yemen for the State Department from 2004 to 2007.
Welcome to the program.
NABEEL KHOURY, Former State Department Official in Yemen: Happy to be here.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, a terrible situation today. Over a hundred and, what is it, 30 were killed, over 300 wounded, worst violence in decades. How do you explain this?
NABEEL KHOURY: Well, this attack was perpetrated against the Houthi in principal, who are in charge in Sanaa.
But, unfortunately, a soft target was chosen, meaning a mosque, where Zaidi Yemenis go.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Zaidi, a particular group.
NABEEL KHOURY: Zaidism is a part of Shia Islam. It broke off Shia Islam centuries ago. But it’s closer to Shia Islam than it is to Sunni Islam.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Late this evening in Baghdad, Reuters reports that Iraq’s Shiite and Sunni political leaders, including the prime minister, made a joint call for national unity.
Tonight, we take a closer look at what the Iraq crisis and its sectarian divisions mean for an already volatile region.
I’m joined by Hisham Melhem, Washington bureau chief of Al-Arabiya News channel, and Mary-Jane Deeb, chief of the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress. But the views she expresses here are her own.
What is the dangerous, Hisham, that the Sunni-Shiite split, which we have become so familiar with now, is going to spread beyond the borders of Iraq throughout the entire region?
HISHAM MELHEM, Al Arabiya News: What we see now in terms of Shia-Sunni rivalry is unprecedented in the history of Islam.
This is the first time we see bloodletting on a continuum front from Iraq to Syria to Lebanon. And if you add to it occasional flare-ups in Bahrain and Yemen, you will get an idea.
This has never happened in modern history, or even any time throughout the history of Islam. That’s why it’s extremely dangerous. When you add to that the fact that you have major Arab countries that are literally unraveling along sectarian ethnic lines, fault lines, Syria and Iraq, you add to that refugee problems in two brittle countries, Lebanon and Jordan, you add to that dearth of leadership in the region, you add to that dearth of leadership in Europe, which makes American leadership extremely important, unfortunately, American leadership also was absent in the last two years.
- The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.
- Above-mentioned branch cannot be run from your country.
- The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its borders.
- The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.
- An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country's 'Golden Years'.
- Your country is purportedly 'selling' 2 million barrels of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market gasoline for the generator.
- For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity and then the government announces it's going to cut back on providing that hour.
- Politicians who supported the war spend TV time debating whether it is 'sectarian bloodshed' or 'civil war'.
- People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that's been missing for two weeks.
That is Iraq right now. The Americans have done a fine job of working to break it apart. This last year has nearly everyone convinced that that was the plan right from the start. There were too many blunders for them to actually have been, simply, blunders. The 'mistakes' were too catastrophic. The people the Bush administration chose to support and promote were openly and publicly terrible- from the conman and embezzler Chalabi, to the terrorist Jaffari, to the militia man Maliki. The decisions, like disbanding the Iraqi army, abolishing the original constitution, and allowing militias to take over Iraqi security were too damaging to be anything but intentional.
Al Qaeda? That's laughable. Bush has effectively created more terrorists in Iraq these last 4 years than Osama could have created in 10 different terrorist camps in the distant hills of Afghanistan. Our children now play games of 'sniper' and 'jihadi', pretending that one hit an American soldier between the eyes and this one overturned a Humvee.
This last year especially has been a turning point. Nearly every Iraqi has lost so much. So much. There's no way to describe the loss we've experienced with this war and occupation. There are no words to relay the feelings that come with the knowledge that daily almost 40 corpses are found in different states of decay and mutilation. There is no compensation for the dense, black cloud of fear that hangs over the head of every Iraqi. Fear of things so out of ones hands, it borders on the ridiculous- like whether your name is 'too Sunni' or 'too Shia'. Fear of the larger things- like the Americans in the tank, the police patrolling your area in black bandannas and green banners, and the Iraqi soldiers wearing black masks at the checkpoint.
What has me most puzzled right now is: why add fuel to the fire? Sunnis and moderate Shia are being chased out of the larger cities in the south and the capital. Baghdad is being torn apart with Shia leaving Sunni areas and Sunnis leaving Shia areas- some under threat and some in fear of attacks. People are being openly shot at check points or in drive by killings… Many colleges have stopped classes. Thousands of Iraqis no longer send their children to school- it's just not safe.
Is the American soldier that died today in Anbar more important than a cousin I have who was shot last month on the night of his engagement to a woman he's wanted to marry for the last six years? I don't think so.
PELLEY: You think the whole region could be in play? Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait?
BUSH: Absolutely. No question in my mind. And I know this is hard for some Americans to understand. The operative phrase that I thought made a lot of sense about this war is: if we fail in Iraq, the enemy will follow us here. And the point I make is that what happens in the Middle East matters to the homeland. And that's different than in some past engagements. Secondly, chaos in the Middle East will empower extremists who hate America. And failure in Iraq, defeat of America, in quotes, will then embolden these extremists. They'll be able to recruit more. They'll be able to find more suiciders. They'll have resources at their availability, like energy if they were able to topple modern governments. In other words, these people have a plan. They have a vision of the world. And they intend to use murder to enact their vision. And I fully understand that. You know, some of my buddies in Texas say, “You know, let them fight it out. What business is it of ours? You got rid of Saddam. Just let them slug it out.” And that's a temptation that I know a lot of people feel. But if we do not succeed in Iraq, we will leave behind a Middle East which will endanger America in the future.
PELLEY: Instability in Iraq threatens the entire region?
BUSH: If the government falls apart and there is sectarian enclaves and violence, it'll invite Iran into the Shia neighborhoods, Sunni extremists into the Sunni neighborhoods, Kurdish separatist movements. All of which would threaten moderate people, moderate governments, and all of which will end up creating conditions that could lead to attacks here in America.
PELLEY: Could have been a mistake?
BUSH: Yeah. [General] John Abizaid, one of the planners, said in front of Congress, you know, he thought we might have needed more troops. My focus is on how to succeed. And the reason I brought up the mistakes is, one, that's the job of the commander-in-chief, and, two, I don't want people blaming our military. We got a bunch of good military people out there doing what we've asked them to do. And the temptation is gonna find scapegoats. Well, if the people want a scapegoat, they got one right here in me 'cause it's my decisions.
PELLEY: Do you believe as commander-in-chief you have the authority to put the troops in there no matter what the Congress wants to do?
BUSH: In this situation, I do, yeah. Now, I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I made my decision, and we're going forward.
