Babil police worried about calls for national resistance

In AlHayat this morning (Monday June 23):

Leaflets are being distributed on a daily basis in Babil urging a fight against the Americans and the stockpiling of weapons, and some residents awake to the sound of explosions preceded by enemy gunfire.

[A Babil police official] told AlHayat that "there are many sleeper cells in the governate, which have perhaps taken the occasion of the announcement of Sayyed Al-Sadr to appear and be activated, under the umbrella of that announcement. And he added that among these cells some are connected with the Baath party, and others are connected, perhaps, with the Army of Heaven or other extreme Shiite movements.

(But none of the leaflets are signed, and AlQuds alArabi, in a story this morning relating the same facts, says: "This [no claim of responsibility] has led many experts to think that this coincides with the call by Al-Sadr for the formation of special groups to fight the Americans").

The Babil police official said those caught distributing the leaflets are referred to the courts under the relevant laws, stressing: "Under no conditions should we minimize these developments, which could have such tragic ends". The reporter continues:

AlHayat has obtained a copy of a leaflet which begins: "National resistance is the only option for Iraqis for expelling the occupation and its agents". The leaflet urges citizens to obtain sufficient materials and to stockpile them "for when the zero hour comes", and invited them to follow the internet and what is broadcast there respecting "the armed Iraqi revolution", asking all who become aware of these directives to distribute them among the citizenry.

The leaflet said fighting in the ranks of the armed national resistance is a sacred national obligation. This leaflet is not the first of its kind in Hilla and environs. There were earlier leaflets in the district of Abu Gharaq calling for fighting the Americans, and another in the district of Wardiya Hajam (?) distributed by the "high Islamic council" which they described as a terrorist organization.

The other major Iraq story this morning in AlHayat is headed: "The founder of the Amariya [Baghdad] Awakening says the Americans have cut him loose and the [Iraqi] government is pursuing him." The person in question, Saad Aaribi, alias Abu Al-Abd, is said to have been a former Islamic Army in Iraq fighter, who was instrumental in facilitating the spread of the Awakenings concept from Anbar to Baghdad. The implication in this story is he is now being "prosecuted" for pre-awakening resistance activities, but that isn't spelled out. He is quoted to the effect his home has been broken into, he doesn't know where his family is, and regrettably this shows there was some truth in what AlQaeda said at the time, namely that the he and other Awakening people would be liquidated once they had served their purpose. Another Baghdad awakening official said the same thing could well happen to him. A government person is quoted to the effect this is nothing more than impartial application of the laws.