Hundreds of Shiites protest US base in Baghdad bastion
AFP Fri Mar 16, 10:07 AM ET
More than a thousand unarmed protesters demanded the removal of a US military base from east Baghdad's Sadr City on Friday, in the first sign of Shiite opposition to a new security plan.
Sadr City is a stronghold of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and there had been fears that US and Iraqi forces would face violent opposition as they tried to gain control of the vast slum district.
Instead, Sadr's black-clad militia fighters melted away as the plan went into effect last month, and last week troops and police taking part in the operation were able to set up a "Joint Security Station" in the area.
On Thursday, however, one of Sadr City's two mayors who negotiated with the Americans and welcomed the creation of the fortified base was shot and wounded by unidentified gunmen, who killed a police colonel travelling with him.
Then, after Friday's weekly prayers, large crowds of Shiite worshippers unfurled banners demanding the base be abandoned and chanted: "No, no to America. No, no to Israel. No, no to Satan."
Armed and uniformed members of the US-trained Iraqi security forces joined in some of the chants, but there was no open display by militia fighters.
A tract distributed among the crowds by Sadr's office denounced what it described as "bases for the occupier on the lands of Sadr City".
Sadr himself was not present -- the US military believes he has gone to ground in Iraq's Shiite neighbour Iran -- but supporters carried his portrait and read out a statement he had apparently sent to them.
"The occupiers wanted to distort the reputation of the city and issued propaganda saying there are talks and cooperation between you and them. I am confident that you regard them as your enemy," he said.
"Don't surrender to them. You are their betters," he added.
The protest and the shooting of Mayor Rakim al-Darraji will be of concern to both the US military and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's beleaguered Shiite-led government, which have been pleased by the lack of violence in Sadr City.
More then 90,000 Iraqi and US troops have been deployed around Baghdad as part of Operation Fardh al-Qanoon (Imposing Law), an ambitious plan to regain control of the city and quell sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.
Since it was formally launched one month ago there has been little of the anticipated resistance and the city's murder rate is down sharply, although Sunni insurgents have continued to detonate car bombs almost daily.
On Thursday, before he heard of Darraji's shooting, the US commander in Baghdad said he had been pleasantly surprised by the calm in Sadr City.
"We've had a really good response from the people in the area. There's been no push-back at all so far from the Jaish al-Mahdi," General Joseph Fil said, using the Arabic term for Sadr's Mahdi Army.
Sadr's position on the Baghdad security plan has been ambiguous.
While a supporter of Maliki's government, the cleric is also a firm opponent of the US presence in Iraq, and has urged his Shiite supporters and the Iraqi security forces not to cooperate with what he calls "the enemy occupier".
Attack on Sadr official leads to tension
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
1:32 pm EDT Friday 16 March 2007
An attack against the mayor of Sadr City has created tension in the ranks of Shiite militiamen with some blaming a faction unhappy about cooperation with Americans, a local commander said Friday.
Gunmen opened fire on the convoy carrying Mayor Rahim al-Darraji Thursday in eastern Baghdad, seriously wounding him and killing two of his bodyguards, police and a local official said.
Al-Darraji was the principal negotiator in talks with U.S. officials that led to an agreement to pull Shiite fighters off the streets in Sadr City, a stronghold of the feared Mahdi Army, and a local commander said suspicion fell on a group of disaffected militiamen who are angry about the deal.
"This is a faction that enjoys some weight," the Mahdi Army commander said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
He said the attack has created tension within the ranks of the militia and renewed debate about allowing the Americans to operate in Sadr City without resistance during a security sweep aimed at ending the sectarian violence that has raged since a Feb. 22, 2006, bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.
Al-Darraji had also lobbied the Americans to bring reconstruction projects to Sadr City that would create jobs in the impoverished neighborhood. U.S. military commanders have said that could help disarm the largely unemployed men in the Mahdi Army.
One of the dead bodyguards was identified as police Lt. Col. Mohammad Mutashar Al-Freji, a friend of al-Darraji who was politically linked to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The success in reining in al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which fought fiercely against U.S. forces in 2004, is widely credited with the drop in execution-style killings, random shootings and rocket attacks during the month-old operation, and the attack against al-Darraji cast a shadow on that strategy.
Al-Sadr supporters also planned a demonstration Friday after traditional weekly prayer services to protest the establishment of a joint U.S.-Iraqi base in Sadr City, a sprawling district in eastern Baghdad.
Four U.S. soldiers, meanwhile, were killed in a roadside bombing Thursday in mainly Shiite eastern Baghdad and the military said it found a sophisticated weapon at the site that was of the type Washington believes is being supplied by Iran to Shiite militias.
Two more American troops were reported killed Friday — a U.S. soldier who died in an explosion Thursday in the volatile Sunni province of Salahuddin, northwest of Baghdad, and a Marine who died in a non-combat incident Thursday in Anbar province, west of the capital. A Marine also died Wednesday in a non-combat incident in Anbar.
At least 74 Americans have been killed in fighting since the U.S.-Iraqi security sweep to stop the sectarian violence in Baghdad began on Feb. 14 — most in Baghdad or volatile areas north of the capital and to the west in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province. At least 3,208 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began four years ago next week, according to an Associated Press count.
U.S. Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., who is on his second tour of Iraq, acknowledged Thursday that the security crackdown was putting U.S. troops at greater risk in the capital simply because they were in the streets in greater numbers.
Fil also said the United States would have American soldiers in as many as 100 garrisons scattered throughout Baghdad by the time the last of the additional 20,000-plus troops allocated by President Bush arrive at the end of May. There are now 77 such posts, he said.
The bases will be a combination of Joint Security Stations — command and control centers operated jointly with Iraqis — and small combat outposts.
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Iraq cleric slams occupiers, Shi'ite mayor shot
By Claudia Parsons
Reuters 12:39 pm EDT Friday 16 March 2007
Radical Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged his followers on Friday to oppose occupying troops, raising the pressure on U.S.-backed Iraqi forces conducting a security crackdown in Baghdad.
In a possible setback for the crackdown, the mayor of Sadr City, a Shi'ite militia stronghold in the capital, was wounded when gunmen opened fire on his car on Thursday.
Sheikh Raheem al-Darruji has been a key figure in facilitating recent joint operations in Sadr City, long a no-go area for U.S. forces and a bastion of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to the fiercely anti-American Sadr.
A statement from Sadr that was read out at prayers in Sadr City on Friday repeated his longheld opposition to the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, and appeared to respond to recent statements by U.S. military officials who have said people in Sadr City were cooperating with them.
"I'm confident that you consider them (U.S. forces) your enemies," said the statement carrying Sadr's seal which was issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf as well as being read out to thousands of worshippers in Sadr City.
"I call upon you all to raise your voices all together and shout with one voice 'No, No, America'," the statement said.
Sadr City was viewed as a test of the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government's will to deal as firmly with Shi'ite militias as it does with Sunni Arab insurgents. U.S. commanders say they have met little resistance since launching operations 10 days ago.
Sadr's statement denounced U.S. forces as occupiers but did not mention Iraqi security forces. Sadr's political movement has expressed its support for the Baghdad plan as long as operations are conducted by Iraqi forces.
PROTEST AT U.S. FORCES
A Mehdi Army official said thousands of people demonstrated after prayers on Friday to reject the establishment of a joint U.S.-Iraqi security station in Sadr City. Television pictures showed at least hundreds of people.
Major General Joseph Fil, commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad, said on Thursday Sadr did appear to have instructed his followers to work with Iraqi security forces, if not with Americans. "I don't know that we have his support now," he said.
The chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, Major General William Caldwell, said this week U.S. forces were keeping a close track on Sadr and they believed he was in Iran. His aides have insisted he is still in Iraq.
Just a few months ago, Washington called Sadr's Mehdi Army militia the greatest threat to security in Iraq.
The radical young cleric headed uprisings against U.S. forces twice in 2004, but his political movement is now an important party in the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Thursday's attack on the mayor of Sadr City could complicate efforts to improve security there.
An Iraqi police source said Darruji was driving in a private car with a police colonel on Thursday in a district of Sadr City when gunmen in another car opened fire, killing the policeman and wounding the mayor.
The mayor's driver was also killed, a U.S. military spokesman said, but the mayor was in "good condition" on Friday.
"He has been helpful to the coalition and the efforts to establish the joint security station inside of Sadr City," the spokesman said.
(Additional reporting by Khalid Farhan in Najaf and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad)
