Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/world/middleeast/16iraq.html
August 16, 2008
Truck Bomber Kills 9 as Shiite Pilgrims Travel Through Northern Iraq
By STEPHEN FARRELL and SUADAD AL-SALHY[-ir] [hydra] [insurgency] [bush administration’s “surge option”] [some positive indicators of improvement] [nevertheless, violence while surge unfolds] [clearly, sectarian] [followup] [“surge” continues amid mixed indicators] [al Maliki govt attempting to re-assure Iran about proposed SoFA with US while committing not to allow –iraq to be used as launch pad] [the spasm of violence] [tough negotiations over SOFA] [though rare, another example of US troops abusing –iraqis] [is political reconciliation slipping away?] [continued violence that appears sectarian—aimed a Shi’ite] ] [***]
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber in northern Iraq killed nine people on Friday, in the second attack in 24 hours on Shiite pilgrims traveling to Karbala [****]to celebrate one of the holiest days in the Shiite calendar, the Iraqi police said.
A pickup truck exploded near the central bus station at Balad, a largely Shiite town in the overwhelmingly Sunni province of Salahuddin.
Witnesses speculated that the bomber had exploited a recent relaxation in security. “It is an attempt to blow up the atmosphere of reconciliation between the people of Balad and the other cities of Salahuddin and to make another wave of sectarian anger,” Col. Ali Saleh, a Salahuddin police spokesman, [****]said.
The roads south to the holy city of Karbala have been jammed with pedestrians, cars, minibuses and buses over the past two days, as millions of Shiites traveled to celebrate the birthday of Muhammad al-Mahdi, a ninth-century saint and the last of their 12 revered imams.
On Thursday a female suicide bomber killed at least 18 pilgrims in nearby Iskandariya. The Karbala police said that after a wave of such bombings elsewhere in Iraq, they were deploying more than 2,000 women to make sure that every woman visiting the city was frisked nine times [****]before reaching the city’s two main shrines.
At Friday Prayer, the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr called on followers to pledge in blood their loyalty to the Shiite saint, and to affirm their commitment to driving American troops out of Iraq. [this makes it sound as if Sadr is inside Iraq] [I’ve read nothing to suggest he’s left his redoubt in Iran] [*****] Mr. Sadr named his Mahdi Army militia after the saint.
The call for a blood pledge was issued in mosques across Iraq as Mr. Sadr’s followers circulated a document urging Muslims to liberate Islamic countries, “and Iraq especially,” from “occupation and colonization.” The document included a photocopy of his fingerprint in red.
Mr. Sadr recently announced that he intended to split his movement into the Mahdi Army and an unarmed cultural and religious movement. His latest summons specified that followers could take part “either in jihad and military resistance or in jihad and cultural resistance.” [*****]
With many loyalists on the road to Karbala, only a few hundred turned up at Sadrist offices in the Sadr City district of Baghdad and in Najaf to sign the covenant.
Mr. Sadr’s political opponents dismissed his urging as a sign of weakness. A close aide of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said: “This recent announcement is just an empty one. The Moktada al-Sadr issue is finished.” [******]
Some residents of Sadr City said that Mr. Sadr was reasserting his presence after recent gains by government security forces in his strongholds of Sadr City, Basra and Amara. “He wants to say that ‘I am still here,’ ” said one man, Abu Sadeq. “He can’t stand the idea that he lost control of the city.”
Ibrahim al-Sumaidaie, a political analyst, said, however, that Mr. Sadr was using the summons as a form of census, “to calculate his supporters on the ground” ahead of elections.
During the same holiday last year, Mr. Sadr’s forces fought a turf war with rival government forces in Karbala, which was jammed with crowds of pilgrims. That bloodshed drew widespread criticism and forced Mr. Sadr to freeze the Mahdi Army’s activities within days.
On Friday even devoted followers of Mr. Sadr conceded that in the past his movement had been damaged by “illegal persons who attacked people,” forcing him to carry out a purge, said Abdul Rahman Hamed Hussein, a Sadr supporter who was providing water and soft drinks to thirsty marchers in Abu Dshir, a few miles south of Baghdad. “That is why he froze the activities of the Mahdi Army.”
Reporting was contributed by Mohammed Hussein, Ali Hameed and Riyadh Muhammad from Baghdad, and by Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, Karbala and Salahuddin Province.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company