Are secularists, Islamists headed for confrontation in Iraq?
Following an attack against the Communist Party in southern Iraq, tensions escalated between Islamist forces and civil and secular parties.
BAGHDAD — A recent anonymous attack on the Iraqi Communist Party office in Diwaniyah city is raising fears that animosity is intensifying between Islamist and secular activists.
At least two hand grenades were thrown into the party's office the night of April 10, causing no fatalities but significant material damage.
Although the perpetrators and the reasons behind the incident remain unknown, some observers link it to an attack earlier that day on students protesting at the University of Al-Qadisiyah by bodyguards of Qais al-Khazali, the head of Asaib Ahl al-Haq (League of the Righteous). The students had been chanting “Iran out, out” during Khazali's speech at the school when the guards fired their weapons. At least two students were injured in subsequent confrontations, an undisclosed Iraqi police source told Rudaw Media.
However, Mahmoud al-Rabihi, a spokesman for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iranian-funded, Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group, blamed one particular student for inciting the incident. “The troublemaker student who was shouting these slogans is the son of an official in the Communist Party. His actions were planned and motivated by ideological principles and he crossed the line,” Rabihi said in an April 10 statement.
