BASRA, IRAQ — The corniche buzzes at night: drivers honking to friends on the sidewalk, teenagers joy-riding rickety motorboats along the murky Shatt al Arab, families lining up for rides on the yellow-lit Ferris wheel.
Mazen Abdul Kareem gazes at the water, remembering when the gunmen trawled the boardwalk in their tinted-window Toyotas. Even then, he would come, just looking out where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers merge and flow into the Persian Gulf, wondering whether his time was near. There were too many victims. Doctors. Professors. Women. Students. Musicians.
For three years, Basra was held hostage to greed-fueled conflicts, a city synonymous with gangs fighting for control of the region's oil resources and lucrative oil-smuggling trade. One senior Iraqi Cabinet member cautioned that the city's blend of corruption and gangland politics could very well be Iraq's future.
In late March, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki dispatched an estimated 33,000 troops to tackle the militias and assert control over Iraq's economic gateway. But even as residents hope that a new era has dawned, they are fearful that once this Iraqi operation is over, the city could again fall victim to political violence.
In interviews, security officials and residents pointed to what they called the lack of clean hands in the city. With most local political figures linked to the fighting and criminal activities of the last three years, the Maliki operation's effectiveness in bringing long-term stability to Basra is questionable.
"There are 47 parties in Basra, and all of them have militias," said a high-ranking security official with detailed knowledge of the Basra operation. Like many others interviewed for this report, he spoke on condition of anonymity.
Three mid-level police officers here described the hellish situation before troops moved in -- mayhem that involved just about every player in the city. They accused the Mahdi Army, which is loyal to populist cleric Muqtada Sadr, of kidnapping doctors and other professionals; an Iranian-backed religious party called Thar Allah (Vengeance of God) of killing unveiled women; Basra Gov. Mohammed Waeli's Al Fadila al Islamiya party of oil smuggling; and the Badr Organization militia allied with the leading member of Iraq's ruling coalition of arms dealing and assassinating political rivals.
"We don't trust any of the parties," one of the officers said.
