Google News - BAGHDAD, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Iraq's Defence Ministry on Sunday rejected charges by U.S. military commanders that a general in the volatile Diyala province was targeting Sunni leaders and turning a blind eye to Shi'ite death squads.
"All the commanders of our divisions work professionally and we have our own intelligence to monitor them," Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said, commenting on a New York Times report about Major General Shakir Hulail Hussein al-Kaabi, commander of one of 10 new, U.S.-trained Iraqi army divisions.
The New York Times described tension between the U.S. military and Shakir, who was appointed this summer to command the Iraqi Fifth Division in the province which is home to a volatile mix of Sunni Arabs, Shi'ites and Kurds.
"I think the sectarian war is coming this way," Colonel Brian Jones, the outgoing commander of U.S. troops in the province, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"Recent operations conducted by the Fifth Iraqi Army seem to be focused strictly on the Sunnis," U.S. Major General Benjamin Mixon, commander for all of northern Iraq, told the paper.
Mixon said U.S. forces were investigating allegations of death squad involvement by Iraqi troops under Shakir, who was quoted as denying any knowledge of death squads.
"We don't favour one side," Shakir was quoted as saying.
U.S. commanders in Iraq say privately they are concerned the Iraqi forces, on which U.S. plans for withdrawal are based, are prone to splitting along sectarian lines and that the Shi'ite-led government is promoting Shi'ite commanders.
SECTARIAN AGENDA?
Jones was quoted as saying he had concluded Shakir's ambition was to destroy the Sunni political movement in the province, possibly on orders from Baghdad.
"It just seems to be a deliberate attempt to make sure that the Sunnis are unable to organise politically here and represent themselves well in the next round of elections," Jones said.
"I believe this is a larger plan to make Diyala a Shia province, rather than a Sunni province," he said.
Local journalists in Diyala told Reuters there had been widespread popular anger among the local Sunni population when hundreds of Sunnis were detained several weeks ago by the army.
Asked about the charges against Shakir, Askari said: "These are all allegations and we have not had any official complaint about this person."
Jones said the rise of Shi'ite militias was pushing Sunni Arabs into the arms of insurgents, including al Qaeda in Iraq, and that process was fueled by sectarian bias in the army.
Washington has focused its efforts on training and establishing an independent and capable Iraqi security force so that U.S. troops can start to withdraw -- a goal undermined but accusations of sectarian partisanship within the forces.
Attacks on Shi'ites by Sunni insurgents linked to al Qaeda and reprisals by both sides have surged since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February, making Diyala one of main faultlines of sectarian hatred in Iraq.
Many Shi'ites have fled the regional capital Baquba, residents say, while Sunni refugees from Baghdad and elsewhere have moved into to a city where Sunni insurgents, including al Qaeda Islamists, hold great sway behind the scenes.
By contrast, people living in rural towns in Diyala told Reuters, groups of Shi'ite militiamen have appeared in the area, apparently from Baghdad.