Election tensions/ Allawi-Sadr war?
Garbage collectors are complaining in Baghdad about the number of torn campaign posters they have to sweep up these days.
Tensions are high ahead of elections on December 15.
Political parties are tearing down each other’s posters or defacing them with black paint.
The biggest victims of the vandals are secular parties, in particular the list led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi.
It therefore came as no surprise that Allawi was attacked in Najaf on Sunday.
Sources in Najaf told me the attack was led by supporters of hardline cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Allawi also indirectly accused Sadr, saying it was "a similar attack" to the assassination of the late Shiite Ayatollah Abdel Majid al-Khoei, stabbed to death the day after the fall of Baghdad.
Sadr has been accused of ordering the murder. Allawi apparently plans to make Sadr pay for Sunday’s attack. He said the next government will track down the attackers; if Allawi wins a leading role in December’s elections (as expected) we could have a Sadr vs. Allawi showdown; it would be very bloody.
Saddam signaling?
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