Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/world/middleeast/29cnd-sadr.html
August 29, 2007
Iraqi Cleric Halts Militia Activities for 6 Months
By STEPHEN FARRELL and CHRISTINE HAUSER [-ir] [hydra] [insurgency] [bush administration’s “surge option” or “new way forward” underway] [some positive indicators of improvement] [nevertheless, violence while surge unfolds] [pentagon’s recent status report—pretty awful but also predictable] [followup] [chaos increases] [the “surge”] [more judicial proceedings amid the foundering al-Maliki govt] [recent calls from congress for al Maliki’s replacement] [Sadr’s Mahdi militia—what is he up to?] [*****]
BAGHDAD, Aug. 29 — The radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr suspended all activities of his widely-feared Mahdi Army for six months, a move that was widely taken to be acknowledgment of a backlash in Iraq against his fighters for fighting street battles with government forces [****] in the sacred city of Karbala during one of its holiest festivals.
Mr. Sadr’s senior aides announced the freeze after an indefinite curfew ended two days of pitched fighting between Shiite forces that left 52 people dead and 279 injured, [***] according to health officials in Karbala.
Thousands of pilgrims who were celebrating the birth of a revered 9th-century Shiite imam were forced to flee through bloodstained streets on Tuesday to escape what witnesses said was gunfire exchanged between Mahdi Army fighters and official government security forces. These are dominated by the Sadrists’ chief internal rivals, [****] the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its armed Badr movement.
Mr. Sadr’s statement was issued from his office in Najaf. Besides declaring the suspension, it also ordered a formal period of mourning over the events in Karbala and urged the government to investigate.
Ahmad Al-Shaibani, the head of the media department in Mr. Sadr’s office in Najaf, accused security forces of opening fire on pilgrims and Sadrists.
“This decision will have great advantage: It will distinguish and isolate those who claim to be working for J.A.M. and they are actually not part of it,” he told reporters in Najaf, using the initials of the Arabic for the Mahdi Army, Jaish al-Mahdi. “J.A.M. is a huge and active body in Iraq, but there are some intruders who want to create rifts. We don’t have masked men working with us. There are people even from the forces of occupation who work and say that they are from J.A.M.”
Mr. Shaibani added, “We announce our readiness to cooperate with the state to end those intruders, who are considered members of J.A.M.” [Jaish al-Mahdi] [**]
He said the order meant there would be a halt to military operations, including a conditional halt to actions directed against the occupation forces.
“If there will be any provocative actions by them, we will consider this later,” he said. “People should not understand that we are resorting to peaceful resistance. This is not our strategy. We followed that in the past and it didn’t work. Our participation in the political process does not mean ending the resistance to the occupier, but we will stop for six months.”
The government forces in Karbala and other towns in southern Iraq are dominated by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its armed wing, the Badr Organization. Many Badr fighters are veterans trained by Iran when they lived there as exiles under Saddam Hussein’s rule. [Badr militia and Iran] [***] [of course Sadr too has frequented Iran]
Tensions between the Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization have simmered for months. [****] Both are vying for control of the overwhelmingly Shiite regions of central and southern Iraq. Two provincial governors belonging to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council were assassinated in southern Iraq this month, although the Sadrists deny involvement.
The showdown will prove embarrassing for Mr. Maliki if his security forces cannot control the Mahdi Army and restore order in a holy city in his own Shiite heartland.
The violence appeared to spread to other cities, although attacks on mosques and offices linked to the Badr Organization were on a much smaller scale. In Baghdad, five people were killed and 20 wounded in clashes between militiamen in the Sadr City neighborhood, a Shiite stronghold, the police said.
Mr. Maliki, who went to Karbala today, ordered the dismissal of the former commander of military operations in Karbala, Maj.Gen Saleh Khazaal, pending an investigation.
An Iraqi army captain in Karbala who declined to give his name said today that the fighting started between the Mahdi Army and the guards of a major shrine.
“All of a sudden we saw J.A.M. snipers on rooftops of the nearby hotels, and weapons in the hands of pilgrims,” the captain said. “It seemed as if they deliberately started the fight to attack the security forces, because this prompt reaction does not make sense".
Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims had descended on Karbala in the past few days to celebrate the birth of Muhammad al-Mahdi, the 9th-century saint and the last of 12 imams revered by Shiites.
The tensions in Karbala began Monday, with confrontations between Sadr supporters and the Badr-dominated security forces around the city’s twin golden-domed shrines. Those forces have been on a constant state of high alert because of suicide bombings by Sunni insurgents at Shiite religious festivals in previous years.
Witnesses said on Tuesday that as pilgrims gathered in a plaza between the shrines, the Mahdi Army fighters took up positions around the shrines and traded fire with the police. Pilgrims, whom officials had ordered to leave the city, fled in panic, but many could not get transportation out of the area as the police set up roadblocks to prevent Mahdi Army fighters from entering.
Sadrists said the police who carried out body searches and magnetic scans at checkpoints provoked their followers by beating pilgrims who chanted pro-Sadr slogans. Other reports said that Mahdi Army followers accompanying pilgrims and claiming to be protecting them were prohibited from taking weapons into the shrines.
Iraqi officials said those initial clashes escalated Monday night when the police attacked the Mukhayam mosque, a Mahdi Army stronghold in Karbala, and arrested about 20 fighters. The Mahdi Army retaliated Tuesday morning by attacking security force positions, the police said.
Gunmen also attacked Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council offices and mosques in the Baghdad districts of Sadr City, Shuala, Jadriya, Husseiniya, Khadimiya and Diwaniya.
On Tuesday, Haydar Abbas, a lecturer in law at the University of Babil in central Iraq, said it was significant that the confrontation took place when the Sadrists appeared to feel increasingly marginalized. Mr. Sadr’s followers left the government this year over a disagreement with Mr. Maliki about the continued American troop presence in Iraq. [***] The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council is the largest Shiite party in the government.
Mr. Abbas said the Supreme Islamic Iraq Council’s influence had been growing. “They have a lot of power over Maliki,” he said. “What is going on is a message from the Sadrists that we are here and we will not withdraw easily.”
He continued: “If we read the history of the two movements, the Badrists and the Mahdi Army, we see that both were military factions turned into political powers. This means that they might revert at any time to their military nature.”
On Tuesday night, each side blamed the other for the fighting. The Sadr office in Najaf initially issued a statement from Mr. Sadr appealing for calm.
“We want to clear up the misunderstanding that happened in Karbala,” it said. “This crisis is not connected with the Mahdi Army or Sadr movement. The incidents that happened were between the pilgrims and the government forces.”
Mr. Maliki’s office issued a statement calling its opponents “armed criminals and followers of the old regime” and saying that order had been restored to the streets.
Stephen Farrell reported from Baghdad and Christine Hauser from New York. Ali Adeeb contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Karbala and Najaf.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company