Radical Cleric in Iraq Sets Off Day of Fighting, then backs off.

AGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 5 - The radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr called for a national uprising against American and allied forces Thursday morning, then backed off near midnight after a day of fighting between his guerrillas and American and Iraqi troops.

The heaviest fighting occurred mainly in Najaf, a Shiite holy city 100 miles south of Baghdad that is a stronghold for Mr. Sadr. A Marine helicopter was shot down there, but the crew members were evacuated safely, the United States military reported.

Baghdad, even in the Shiite slum neighborhood of Sadr City, appeared to be mostly quiet until 11:15 p.m., when three large explosions, probably from mortars, rocked the city's center. Small-arms fire followed.

One American marine and several insurgents were killed in Najaf, where marines fought alongside Iraqi policemen and National Guard troops. At least a dozen more soldiers and dozens of insurgents were wounded in both Baghdad and Najaf, though exact casualty counts were unavailable late Thursday night.

Near midnight, Mr. Sadr offered a tentative cease-fire, saying his guerrillas would stop fighting if American soldiers did the same, according to a spokesman for the group. The offer would renew a two-month-old truce between Mr. Sadr and the American military, a truce that had appeared on the verge of crumbling earlier Thursday.

Each side blamed the other for the apparent breakdown of the cease-fire, which comes less than two weeks before a national political conference that Mr. Sadr has said he will not attend.

While more confined than the widespread fighting in April and May, Thursday's attacks represented the most serious challenge yet to the interim Iraqi government, whose head, Ayad Allawi, has struggled to assert his authority since being named prime minister in June. Unlike moderate Shiite political leaders like Dr. Allawi, Mr. Sadr fiercely opposes the continuing American presence here and has tried twice since October to revolt against it.

Dr. Allawi, who has been traveling outside Iraq for most of the last 10 days, is eager to show his independence from the United States and to prove that Iraqi security forces can stop the growing violence here. But Thursday's clashes showed again that only American troops have the firepower to contain Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army, a well-armed militia that has fighters across the southern half of Iraq.

During the afternoon, American jets swooped over Baghdad and appeared to drop several bombs on Sadr City, a giant Shiite slum in Baghdad. A military spokesman confirmed that an F-15 fighter had dropped at least one bomb.

Mr. Sadr, a 31-year-old cleric whose father, Muhammad, was revered by many poor Shiites, is a deeply polarizing figure here. Some Iraqis view him as a hothead, while others regard him as a courageous leader who has risked his life to defy the United States.

In interviews on Thursday, shopkeepers and residents in the Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya expressed contempt for what they said was the cleric's quickness to turn to weapons and intemperate speeches.

"He doesn't represent me," said Kasim Muhammad, a 25-year-old dress shop owner. "There isn't a house in Iraq that doesn't have someone dead because of wars, and he talks about carrying weapons."

Even in the chaos of kidnappings and car bombs that has roiled the country since the American occupation began last year, Mr. Muhammad remains firmly set against Mr. Sadr. Four families who live in his neighborhood have lost relatives in car bombings this year.

Last year, an Iraqi judge secretly ordered Mr. Sadr arrested for the murder of a more moderate cleric in April 2003, but the authorities hesitated to carry out the warrant for fear of provoking his followers. When the United States disclosed the warrant in April, nearly two months of clashes followed, ending only when the occupation authorities promised not to arrest him.

Baghdad, which has recently been racked by a spate of kidnappings of both Iraqis and Westerners, was very tense on Thursday as word of Mr. Sadr's call for an uprising spread. There are no reliable estimates of the exact size of the Mahdi Army, but in the past Mr. Sadr has shown he could bring thousands of armed men into the streets.

In Sadr City, masked Mahdi Army guerrillas controlled intersections and checked cars. Iraqi police officers and American soldiers remained outside the area for most of the day, and an Iraqi employee of The Times who entered the area twice during the afternoon said he had seen no signs of fighting.

But the Iraqi police reported several firefights in Sadr City during the late afternoon, and an American military spokesman told The Associated Press that seven soldiers had been wounded in two firefights in the area.

In Basra, a mostly Shiite city in the southeastern corner of Iraq, a spokesman for Mr. Sadr said the Mahdi Army had 1,000 guerrillas ready to fight, according to Reuters.

The fiercest fighting took place in and around Najaf, where at least seven insurgents were killed and at least 22 wounded, according to a military statement. The shrine of Imam Ali, a mosque in the center of Najaf that is among the holiest sites to Shiites, was slightly damaged in the fighting, The A.P. reported. In general, American troops have tried to avoid fighting around the shrine and other Shiite holy sites.

The truce between Mr. Sadr and the military has been unraveling for days. It first frayed Sunday, when the police arrested a representative of his in Karbala, near Najaf. On Monday, marines and Mahdi insurgents battled near a maternity hospital in Najaf, and several rebels were killed.

On Tuesday, American troops approached Mr. Sadr's house in Najaf, according to Dr. Salama al-Khafaji, a spokeswoman for a government-appointed council that mediates between the cleric and the American authorities. Fighting intensified Wednesday night, when troops again approached the house, Dr. Khafaji said.

"The Americans escalated the whole situation by coming back with their armored vehicles and trespassing," he said.

But the American military blamed Mr. Sadr for the breakdown. Marines were sent to Najaf's main police station at 3 a.m., after his forces attacked it with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, according to a military statement. The Iraqi police and national guard troops defended the station, and the marines did not fire shots or take any casualties, according to the statement.

"The attack is an overt violation of the cease-fire agreement reached in June between coalition forces and Moktada Sadr," the statement said. In addition, Mahdi Army insurgents recently kidnapped six Iraqi police officers in Najaf, according to the statement. Five have been released, but one remains captive, it said.

In a later military statement, Falah al-Nakib, the Iraqi interior minister, blamed Mr. Sadr's forces for the fighting.

"They attacked Iraqi police and we must respond," Mr. Nakib said. "We have the thugs isolated. Our police forces, supported by the multinational force, are doing their job."

But it was a watch seller in a shop near the Kadhim Shrine - the most holy in Baghdad for Shiites - who put the situation in the starkest term. Iraqis, said the seller, Safa Aswad Abbas, "are standing in a pit," and Mr. Sadr's followers "think America is a big devil."

"But if the devil is telling me, 'Give me your hand and I'll get you out,' why shouldn't I take it?" Mr. Abbas asked.

Sabrina Tavernise and Iraqi employees of TheTimes, whose names have been withheld for security, contributedreportingfor this article.

Radical Cleric in Iraq Sets Off Day of Fighting, then backs off. ^

General Giap clone is a radical Iraqi cleric?

:-(

Why isn't this street thug terrorist DEAD?

If anybody has an authoritative answer to that question I'd love to hear it.

OK, we've played the game his way and just got shot up for our effort.

Now, let's play the game our way where we shoot the son of a bitch and dare his followers/terrorists to stick their heads out. I bet they'd be very meek with Sadr gone.

And while we're at it, let's figure out who's financing this murder's campaign.

Hey guys? Marines?

Ummmm… Time out okay?! (sarcasm font off)

Why in the hell hasn’t somebody sent this guy a Candy-Gram… Preferably Mossad-like?

This article has been posted to DoctorZin’s New News Blog!

Eradicating him would "make him a martyr" and "inflame the local populace.

(These were the same arguments made by leftists regarding going after Osama).

Osama, when (not if) captured, should be placed in a plexiglass chamber at ground zero in NYC for a week, giving people the opportunity to file past him and spit. Someone could be hired to clean the glass with Windex every half hour. Then the chamber should be slowly filled with water for about a week until it reached the top, as he is awarded no dignity whatesoever, and drowned like a scummy little rat. Then the water-filled chamber with the dead body should be left there for at least a day before the body is removed and hauled off by the NYC grabage guys and taken to the NYC garbage dump, where it would be unceremoniously tossed on top of a pile of rotting refuse. Of course, I am open to other suggestions.

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