Editing Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (section)

==History==

===Iran===
Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq was founded in Iran in 1982 during the [[Iran–Iraq War]] after the leading Islamist insurgent group, [[Islamic Dawa Party]], was severely weakened by an Iraqi government crackdown following Dawa's unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Iraqi president [[Saddam Hussein]].  SCIRI was the umbrella body for two Iran-based Shia Islamist groups, Dawa and the [[Islamic Action Organisation]] led by [[Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi]]. Another of SCIRI's founders was Ayatollah [[Hadi al-Modarresi]], the leader the [[Islamic Front for the Liberation of Bahrain]]. The Iranian Islamic revolutionary government arranged for the formation of SCIRI, which was based in exile in Tehran and under the leadership of Mohammad-Baqir al-Hakim. Hakim, living in exile in Iran, was the son of Ayatollah Mohsen-Hakim and a member of one of the leading Shia clerical families in Iraq. "He declared the primary aim of the council to be the overthrow of the Ba'ath and the establishment of an Islamic government in Iraq. Iranian officials referred to Hakim as the leader of Iraq's future Islamic state ..."<ref>Bakhash, Shaul, ''The Reign of the Ayatollahs'' Basic Books, c1984, p.233</ref>

However, there are crucial ideological differences between SCIRI and al-Dawa.  SCIRI supports the ideologies of Iran's Ayatollah [[Ruhollah Khomeini]] that [[Hokumat-e Islami : Velayat-e faqih (book by Khomeini)|Islamic Government]] must be controlled by the [[ulema]] (Islamic scholars). Al-Dawa, on the other hand, follows the position of Iraq's late Ayatollah [[Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr]], and al-Dawa co-founder, that government should be controlled by the [[ummah]] (Muslim community as a whole).

Despite this ideological disagreement, several of SCIRI's factions came from al-Dawa before the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]].<ref>[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20021007&s=lake100702 The Post-Saddam Danger from Iran] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030707233216/http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20021007&s=lake100702 |date=2003-07-07 }}, ''The New Republic'', October 7, 2002</ref>  This historical intersection is significant because al-Dawa was widely viewed as a terrorist group during the Iran–Iraq War.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/target/etc/cron.html "Terrorist attacks on Americans, 1979-1988: The attacks, the groups and the U.S. response,"] ''Frontline''. Retrieved 7 February 2015.</ref>  In February 2007, journalists reported that Jamal Jaafar Muhammed, who was elected to the Iraqi parliament in 2005 as part of the SCIRI/Badr faction of the United Iraqi Alliance, was also sentenced to death in Kuwait for planning the al-Dawa bombings of the French and American embassies in that country in 1983.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nola.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?/base/international-36/1170775511148050.xml&storylist=international|title=NOLA.com: The Wire|access-date=9 June 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080223121802/http://www.nola.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?%2Fbase%2Finternational-36%2F1170775511148050.xml&storylist=international|archive-date=23 February 2008}}</ref>

===Post-invasion===
With the fall of Saddam Hussein after the invasion of Iraq, SCIRI quickly rose to prominence in Iraq, working closely with the other Shia parties.  It gained popularity among Shia Iraqis by providing social services and humanitarian aid, following the pattern of Islamic organizations in other countries such as [[Hamas]] and the [[Muslim Brotherhood]]. SCIRI is alleged to receive money and weapons from Iran, and is often accused of being a proxy for Iranian interests. The party leaders have toned down many of the party's public positions and committed it to [[democracy]] and peaceful cooperation.  SCIRI's power base is in the Shia-majority southern Iraq. The council's armed wing, the [[Badr Organization]], reportedly has had an estimated strength of between 4,000 and 10,000 men. Its [[Baghdad]] offices are based in a house that previously belonged to [[Ba'ath Party|Ba'athist]] Deputy Prime Minister [[Tariq Aziz]].

Its leader, Ayatollah al-Hakim, was killed in a [[Imam Ali Mosque bombing|car bomb attack]] in the Iraqi city of [[Najaf]] on August 29, 2003. The car bomb exploded as the ayatollah was leaving a religious shrine ([[Imam Ali Shrine|Imam Ali Mosque]]) in the city, just after [[Friday prayers]], killing more than 85. According to Kurdish Intelligence officials, Yassin Jarad, allegedly [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]]'s father-in-law, carried out the car bombing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wozarq0208,0,4101449.story|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050210005436/http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wozarq0208,0,4101449.story|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 February 2005|title=Zarqawi kin reportedly bombed shrine in Iraq|last=Bazzi|first=Mohammad|date=7 February 2005|work=Newsday|access-date=24 February 2018}}</ref>

[[Image:Al-Hakim meets G.W. Bush.jpg|300px|thumb|SCIRI's leader Abdal Aziz al-Hakim meeting President George W. Bush, 2006]]

===Interior Ministry===
In the Shia Islamist–dominated government in post-invasion Iraq, SCIRI controlled the Interior Ministry. The Iraqi Interior Minister, [[Bayan Jabr]], was a former leader of SCIRI's Badr Brigade militia. In 2006 the United Nations human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, said that every month hundreds of Iraqis were being tortured to death or executed by the Interior Ministry under SCIRI's control.<ref name="Buncombe-Cockburn">Andrew Buncombe & Patrick Cockburn, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraqs-death-squads-on-the-brink-of-civil-war-467784.html "Iraq's death squads: on the brink of civil war,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430151426/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraqs-death-squads-on-the-brink-of-civil-war-467784.html |date=2008-04-30 }} ''The Independent'' (Feb. 26, 2006). Retrieved 7 February 2015.</ref> According to a 2006 report by the ''Independent'' newspaper:

<blockquote>'Mr Pace said the Ministry of the Interior was "acting as a rogue element within the government". It is controlled by the main Shia party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri); the Interior Minister, Bayan Jabr, is a former leader of Sciri's Badr Brigade militia, which is one of the main groups accused of carrying out sectarian killings. Another is the Mehdi Army of the young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is part of the Shia coalition seeking to form a government after winning the mid-December election.

Many of the 110,000 policemen and police commandos under the ministry's control are suspected of being former members of the Badr Brigade. Not only counter-insurgency units such as the Wolf Brigade, the Scorpions and the Tigers, but the commandos and even the highway patrol police have been accused of acting as death squads.

The paramilitary commandos, dressed in garish camouflage uniforms and driving around in pick-up trucks, are dreaded in Sunni neighbourhoods. People whom they have openly arrested have frequently been found dead several days later, with their bodies bearing obvious marks of torture.'<ref name="Buncombe-Cockburn" /></blockquote>