Posted on 08/05/2004 6:09:18 PM PDT by neverdem
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 5 — The radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr called for a national uprising against American and coalition forces today as a two-month truce between Mr. Sadr and the United States military appeared to collapse.
As night fell, heavy fighting appeared to be confined mainly around Najaf, a Shiite holy city and Sadr stronghold 100 miles south of Baghdad. In Baghdad and Basra, the largest city in southern Iraq, insurgents loyal to Mr. Sadr prepared for clashes with American and British troops. But fighting was sporadic and Baghdad was mostly quiet until 11:15 p.m., when three large explosions, probably from mortars, rocked the city's center.
One American soldier and several insurgents were killed in Najaf, according to an American military statement. At least a dozen more soldiers and dozens of insurgents were wounded in both Baghdad and Najaf, though exact casualty counts were unavailable late this evening.
The situation in Iraq was clouded tonight when, according to wire reports, Mr. Sadr's office called for the truce to be restored. That information could not be confirmed.
Mr. Sadr's earlier call for an uprising threatened 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 Mr. Allawi, Mr. Sadr fiercely opposes the continuing American presence here and has tried twice since October to revolt against it.
Mr. Allawi is eager to show his independence from the United States and to prove that Iraqi security forces can stop the escalating violence here. But today's clashes showed again that only American troops have the firepower to contain Mr. Sadr's guerrilla fighters, called the 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 northeast Baghdad. A military spokesman said he could not comment on whether bombs had been dropped.
In Najaf, Marines fought insurgents beside Iraqi police and Iraqi National Guard troops. An American Marine helicopter was shot down in Najaf this morning, although the crew was rescued, according to a military statement.
A spokesman for Mr. Allawi declined to comment on the fighting, which began at the central police station in Najaf early this morning and spread after Mr. Sadr called on his followers to revolt. "Fight the blasphemous, fight the Americans," Mr. Sadr said in a statement issued from Najaf.
Each side blamed the other for the apparent breakdown of the truce, which came less than two weeks before a national political conference that Mr. Sadr has said he will not attend.
Mr. Sadr, a 31-year-old cleric whose father, Mohammed, was revered by many poor Shiites, is a deeply polarizing figure here. Some Iraqis view him as a hothead, while others believe he is a courageous leader who has risked his life to defy the United States. Before the handover of power in June, American occupation authorities struggled to deal with Mr. Sadr. Last year, an Iraqi judge secretly ordered him arrested for the murder of a more moderate cleric in April 2003, but authorities hesitated to carry out the warrant, fearing that doing so would provoke his followers. When the United States revealed the warrant in April, nearly two months of clashes followed, ending only when the
So far, it is uncertain whether Mr. Sadr's newest call for rebellion, even if it stands, will provoke months of clashes nationwide, as it did in April, or quickly fizzle out, as it did last October. The situation will be further complicated if as happened in April Sunni Muslim insurgents in towns west of Baghdad like Falluja step up their attacks to piggyback on the distraction caused by Mr. Sadr's forces.
Baghdad, which has recently been racked by a spate of kidnappings of both Iraqis and Westerners, was tense today 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 Mr. Sadr can unquestionably 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 saw no signs of fighting. But 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 guerrillas battled Marines and Iraqi National Guard and police units. At least seven insurgents were killed and at least 22 wounded, according to a military statement. In another incident near Najaf, insurgents attacked an American convoy with a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire near Najaf, killing one soldier and wounding five others.
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 on Sunday, when the police arrested a representative of Mr. Sadr, in Karbala, near Najaf. On Monday, marines and Mahdi insurgents battled near a maternity hospital in Najaf, and several rebels died.
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 Mr. Sadr and American authorities. Fighting intensified Wednesday night, when troops again approached Mr. Sadr's house, Dr. Khafaji said.
"The Americans escalated the whole situation by coming back with their armored vehicles and trespassing," Dr. Khafaji said.
But the American military blamed Mr. Sadr for the breakdown in the truce. Marines were sent to Najaf's main police station at 3 a.m., after Mr. Sadr's forces attacked the station 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 have 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."
Iraqi employees of The New York Times in Baghdad contributed reporting for this article.
Joao Silva for The New York Times
A U.S. marine injured during fighting in Najaf is unloaded from a medivac helicopter in the Green Zone, the heavily fortified U.S. headquarters in Baghdad.
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad/Getty Images
In Baghdad, insurgents loyal to Moqtada Al-Sadr prepared for clashes with American and British troops.
Why are Sadr's Shiiteheads still wasting air?
Time for the radical cleric to assume room temperature, I think.
Sadr works for the Iranian ayatollahs. The ayatollahs want John F. Kerry to beat President Bush in November, because they want to keep their nuke program going and figure Kerry is a much better bet to let them do it. So they instruct their boy Sadr to whip up his "uprising" bs again to roil Iraq and make Bush look bad going into the election.
That's the feeling I get.
Amazing how the press gets these cozy pictures of terrorists when they tell us it's too deadly for journalists to walk the streets.
Kill them all and let GOD to sort it out !
See my posting
"Al Sadr Stirs Up Trouble"
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/
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