Pat Dollard | Young Americans

“The group committed 721 murders in Karbala alone and killed dozens of Sunni Muslims in a number of Iraqi cities as part of their acts of ethnic and sectarian cleansing…,”

Karbala, Jun 4, (VOI) – Security forces arrested the five most dangerous leaders of armed groups, which are responsible for hundreds of killings and ethnic cleansing operations that took place in Karbala, the city’s police chief said on Wednesday.

“We have good news for residents of Karbala. Their forces have arrested five of the most dangerous leaders of criminal groups in Karbala, which had caused panic in citizens before the incidents of al-Ziyara al-Shaabaniya (the mid-Shaaban visit),” Major General Raed Shakir Jawdat said during a press conference, which was held at the headquarters of Karbala’s police command and attended by a correspondent for Aswat al-Iraq -Voices of Iraq - (VOI).

“Those arrested are Ali Abd Taan, otherwise known as Ali Sharea; Sayyid Munadil, the mastermind and most bloodthirsty in the group; Muhsin Sharea; Haidar Jouri; and Razzaq al-Sammak, the so-called commander of Ali Bin Abi Taleb’s brigade,” Jawdat said.

“Ali Sharea is the first suspect and most wanted for the incidents of al-Ziyara al-Shaabaniya because he led 150 gunmen who carried out arson and sabotage of many facilities, killed policemen and attacked the shrine of Imam al-Hussein,” Jawdat added.

Ali Sharea, who is also a prominent leader in Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, has escaped several arrests by U.S. forces in western Karbala.

“The group committed 721 murders in Karbala alone and killed dozens of Sunni Muslims in a number of Iraqi cities as part of their acts of ethnic and sectarian cleansing…,” he noted.

When asked about the timing of the arrests, Jawdat said: “The arrests took place long time ago… There separate operations in one place.”

On August 28, 2007, hundreds of people were killed or injured during clashes that broke out between security forces and gunmen in Karbala, where scores of Shiite Muslim visitors converged from inside and outside Iraq to visit the tombs of imams al-Hussein and al-Abbas as a prelude to celebrating the birth anniversary of Imam al-Mahdi, the 12th Messiah-like holiest figure for Shiite Muslims. A wide-spread campaign of arrests followed the clashes.
Karbala, Iraq’s second holiest Shiite city after Najaf, lies 110 km southwest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.