Saddam City's Shias profess their loyalty, but hatred lurks beneath the surface

There is a place just a few miles from central Baghdad that constitutes a volatile and dangerous underbelly for Saddam Hussein's regime in any coming war.

The poor, violent, suburban slum is called, ironically enough, Saddam City because of several visits by the President, the most recent of which was three years ago.

It is the home to about 40 per cent of greater Baghdad's population of 10 million. Almost every one of them is a Shia, a group that makes up 50 per cent of Iraq's population, but sees the levers of power staying in the hands of the Sunni minority, who total 37 per cent, including the Kurds in their autonomous regions.

The combustible nature of the township was seen three years ago with the assassination of the Grand Ayatollah Al-Sadr and two of his sons, which fellow Shia clerics blamed on the regime. There has been a series of killings.

The uprisings that followed engulfed Saddam City as well as other Shia areas such as Nassiriya, Kufa and Najaf.

What panicked the government was the close proximity of Saddam City to the capital. The Special Republican Guard was sent to suppress the rebellion and make examples of the rebels. The final death toll varied from an official figure of 27 to one quoted by the opposition of more than 100.

The alleged torture and execution of one of the leaders of the uprising, Nazar al-Bahadi, a 29-year-old student, was highlighted by Amnesty International as a prime example of human rights abuse in Iraq.

The people of Saddam City have also paid the price for being the underclass. Lawlessness and poverty are prevalent and many young men have suffered in the draconian government clampdown that followed an increase in crime blamed on United Nations sanctions.

As in other parts of Iraq that are under the regime's control, the people at the township are extremely guarded when asked to talk to outsiders about politics unless it is to recite the mantra of opposition to an invasion by the Americans and British.

Away from the café near the main market where we met, Kamal, a 23-year-old student, who was more candid. "There is a lot of unhappiness about things here, especially about the death of the Ayatollah. People are also very poor, there are no jobs, so they get angry."

But Kamal is wary of blaming the regime for the Ayatollah's death. "No one has been caught yet, that is all we know," he said. "We also heard he said his last public prayers in his death clothing so he must have known about his future. More than that I cannot say.

"There are bad people in Iraq who say the Shias are working for 'fellow Shia' Iranians. That is not true, we love our country. We love our Iraqi brothers and sisters."

What would happen if the regime began to collapse under a Western attack? Would there be another uprising? "Who knows? I will not do anything and neither will my friends. But there are plenty of violent men here, and there are a lot of weapons in this area. There are dangerous times coming, and this is a dangerous area," he said

Saddam City features in the Anglo-American propaganda war against Iraq. Peter Hain, a Foreign Office Minister, claims the President has built "a massive luxury resort complex for his cronies'' in the township. His assertions were based on "intelligence" supplied by Iraqi exiles. There is no sign of such a luxury complex in the derelict area.

Asked about the complex, Mohammed Nayas burst out laughing. "Do you really think Saddam would like to live here? Would anyone like to live around here unless they had to?" he said, waving his arms at piles of refuse on the pavement. "This just shows how little the British and the Americans know about our country."

The Iraqi regime has repeatedly blamed the Iranians for funding an army of Shia rebels. Many of those arrested in Saddam City after the 1999 rebellion were charged with being agents of Tehran.