BAGHDAD (AP) — The top U.S. commander has shifted the focus from al-Qaida to Iranian-backed "special groups" as the main threat to a democratic Iraq — a significant change that reflects both the complexity of the war and its changing nature.
The shift was articulated this week in Washington by Gen. David Petraeus, who told Congress that "unchecked, the special groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq."
Before, American commanders have called al-Qaida the greatest threat.
There is little doubt that Shiite extremists fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces have received Iranian weapons, although Iran's government denies supplying them.
But Petraeus' comments obscure the fact that the United States has waded into a monumental power struggle within the majority Shiite community — and crucially, that both sides in that struggle, not just the "special groups," maintain close ties to Iran.
The power struggle is only the latest stage in a decades-long competition between the families of the current top Shiite players: anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, whose political party in Iraq works closely with the U.S. despite its links to Iran.
That intra-Shiite competition is likely to continue — sometimes violently — regardless of whether the Iraqi government and its U.S. backers force al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army militia or not. In military parlance, the term "special groups" refers to presumed breakaway Mahdi factions whose main sponsor is Iran.
American lawmakers expressed frustration this week because Petraeus offered no assurances that an end to the war is near.
