Iraqi BOLO (be on the look out)

Iraqi BOLO

Abu Deraa. He's being called the "Shia Zarqawi" for organizing death squads to take revenge after Sunni Arab suicide bombs kill Shia.
Abu Deraa's death squads still roam central Iraq, killing Sunni Arabs. Several dozen died in Baghdad yesterday, pulled from their cars, identified as Sunni Arabs, and killed on the spot, an end to the vengeance killings, is necessary. Making this happen is the next crucial battle in the war.



A city councilman from Sadr City, who is also a senior official in the Sadr movement, denied that Abu Deraa was in the Mehdi Army.I have heard of Abu Deraa, but he is not a member of the Mehdi Army, which is only a defensive force to protect our people and sacred places,” Naim Al Qaabi said.

Several postings on two Iraqi Internet bulletin boards described Abu Deraa as the “butcher of Rusafa” in reference to the city’s east bank district. They accused him of kidnapping, torturing and killing Sunni Arabs.It said his real name was Ismail, 33, married with two children and that he was a “high school dropout and a former army deserter”.

The Interior Ministry spokesman said Abu Deraa accused Moqtada al-Sadr -- an anti-U.S. Shiite cleric with many followers in Sadr City who leads the Mahdi Army militia -- of being "a coward."

Abu Diraa, Arabic for Father of the Shield, is actually Ismail al-Lami, the father of at least a dozen children from two marriages.

Thousands of victims' bodies have turned up in canals, rivers or garbage dumps since the Samarra bombing. The victims have consistently shown signs of torture — holes drilled in their bodies with electric drills and decapitation.

Abu Diraa cannot read or write and once earned a living as a fishmonger. Like many of his fellow Sadr City residents, the death squad leader hails from the southern province of Maysan. One of his children, a teenager called Haidar, was wounded in Wednesday's raid.