A Free-for-All; The destitute southern city of Nasiriya has become an unruly laboratory for democracy.(Cover Story)

Byline: Joshua Hammer

Salman Shareef Duaffar is proud of his former title as the most wanted man in Iraq. Seven years ago, Duaffar and three accomplices carried out the most brazen assault ever against the despotic regime of Saddam Hussein, shooting his reviled son Uday 17 times as Uday cruised an upscale Baghdad neighborhood in his red Porsche. The attack, which left Uday paralyzed and reportedly impotent, turned the anonymous guerrillas into folk heroes. Saddam's henchmen killed two members of the cell, and though Duaffar escaped to Iran, his father and seven brothers were executed. The guerrilla leader sat out the last years of the dictatorship in the holy city of Qum in Iran, then crossed the border back to Nasiriya two months after Saddam's fall.

Now, with an office in a looted former hotel along the Euphrates River, Duaffar, 35, and his 15th of Shaban Movement are angling for political power. Duaffar recently won a seat on the U.S.-appointed transitional council, holds the province's security portfolio and is preparing to run for office whenever Nasiriya holds a popular vote. "Nasiriya was destroyed by the regime," says Duaffar. "We have an opportunity to set matters right."

After 25 years under Saddam's jackboot, this destitute city in the Shiite south has become an unruly laboratory for democracy. Armed former mujahedin have traded their guns for political manifestos. Moderate religious groups such as the Islamic Dawa Party, radical followers of the young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and 35 other factions and movements--ranging from the Iraqi Communist Party to the Hizbullah movement in Iraq--have also entered the political arena. The jockeying for power is intense: while much of the focus at the national level is on the resurgent political clout of Iraq's Shiites, the free-for-all in places like Nasiriya provides ample evidence of the dangerous fissures within the Shiite community itself. "They're all playing inside the political process now," says John Bourne, coordinator for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Nasiriya, "but they're all capable of turning to violence."

Nasiriya's political awakening follows years of repression. After the Iraqi military put down the 1991 uprising, many fighters retreated to nearby marshes, where they continued sporadic attacks against Baathists and Saddam's security forces. The regime responded by draining the marshes, shelling Shiite villages and financially starving Nasiriya, an ancient city of 500,000 straddling the Euphrates 320 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. The city became a textbook case of death by neglect: the infrastructure rotted, disease rates skyrocketed, joblessness soared. The fierce battle between U.S. forces and the Saddam Fedayeen last April and subsequent looting left much of the city in ruins. Today Nasiriya is a forlorn metropolis of bullet-pocked and burned buildings, pools of stagnant water and dusty streets almost devoid of greenery. By one estimate it will take at least $150 million to give the city potable water and a working sewage system. One Coalition official calls the place "the worst city in Iraq."

Nasiriya's desperate condition has bolstered the fortunes of the former mujahedin. It has also given nearby Iran an opportunity to shape events. In May armed Shiite fighters began returning from exile in Iran, occupying the offices that the Baathists and security forces had abandoned. First came the Badr Brigades, the military wing of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), an exile group led by the cleric Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Hakim. After his murder in August he was replaced as leader of SCIRI and the Badr forces by his younger brother Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who is also a member of Iraq's Governing Council and is close to Ayatollah Ali Sistani. The Badr forces set up political branches in 22 towns and villages across the province, and established a security force, charities and walk-in offices that dispense advice and cash. Last week NEWSWEEK observed Badr staffers handing out ...