Shi'ite fanatic rises in Iraq to fill void left by Zarqawi

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BAGHDAD -- Less than six months after an American air strike ended Abu Musab Zarqawi's campaign of Sunni terrorism, an equally brutal fanatic has emerged on the Shi'ite side of the religious divide.

Abu Deraa's trademark method of killing is a drill through the skull rather than a sword to the neck, but his work rate is just as prolific as the former al Qaeda in Iraq leader's and shows the same diabolical artistry.

In the past year, he and his followers are thought to have killed thousands of Sunnis, their victims' bodies symbolically dumped in road craters left by al Qaeda car bombs.

Stopping monsters such as Abu Deraa -- whose nom de guerre means "the shield" -- is a top U.S. priority as it tries to halt sectarian violence, which regularly claims 100 lives a day.

But the Shi'ite-dominated government has shown a marked reluctance to sanction the kind of large-scale operation necessary to arrest him in his stronghold of Sadr City, a vast Shi'ite slum in eastern Baghdad.

Taking action against him could cost it valuable support among other Shi'ite militias who, despite official disdain for Abu Deraa's bloodthirstiness, value the fear that such a loose cannon inspires in their enemies.

"We are proud of leaders like Abu Deraa," said Hassan Allami, 25, a fighter with the Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi's Army, which Abu Deraa quit earlier this year to form his own faction. "His drills destroy the crazy minds of the Sunnis."

The worsening of interreligious bloodshed reflects badly on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose chief task when he took power in June was to win back Sunni confidence in the political process by stamping out the tacit backing of Shi'ite militias such as the Mahdi's Army.

Yet, increasingly, men such as Abu Deraa appear to operate beyond anyone's control. He is among at least 20 former Mahdi's Army commanders who are pursuing their own agendas, sometimes sectarian, often simply criminal.

Sheik al-Sadr may be a thug himself, coalition officials say, but at least he represented a single, identifiable authority. If dozens of freelance players emerge alongside him, negotiation becomes impossible.