Iraqi and U.S. Forces
Battle Shiite Militia

MICHAEL KAMBER & JAMES GLANZ
New York Times 25mar2008

Supporters of Moktada al-Sadr protested in Baghdad's Amil district on Tuesday. The signs read: "No, No to governmental militias," "No, No, America," and "Yes, Yes, Iraq." [Enlargement below] photo: Thaier al-Sudnai/Reuters

BAGHDAD — Heavy fighting broke out Tuesday in Iraq’s two largest cities, as Iraqi ground forces and helicopters mounted a huge operation to break the grip of the Shiite militias controlling Basra and Iraqi forces clashed with militias in Baghdad. The fighting threatened to destabilize a long-term truce that has helped reduce the level of violence in the five-year-old Iraq war.

Tuesday’s battles, along with indications in recent weeks that militia and insurgent attacks had already been creeping up, raised fears across Iraq that Moktada al-Sadr, the renegade Shiite cleric, could pull out of a cease-fire he declared last summer. If his Mahdi Army militia does step up attacks, that could in turn slow American troop withdrawals.

There were also serious clashes in the southern cities of Kut and Hilla. In Basra, American and British jets roared through the skies, providing air support for the Iraqi military. A British Army spokesman for southern Iraq, Maj. Tom Holloway, said that while Western forces had not entered Basra, the operation already involved nearly 30,000 Iraqi troops and police forces, with more arriving.

“They are clearing the city block by block,” Major Holloway said.

The scale and intensity of the clashes in Baghdad kept many residents home. Schools and shops were closed in many neighborhoods and hundreds of checkpoints appeared; government-controlled in some neighborhoods and militia-run in others. Barrages of rockets pounded the fortified Green Zone area for the second time in three days. An American military spokesman said there were two minor injuries to civilians in the Green Zone.

Even before the crackdown on militias began on Tuesday, Pentagon statistics on the frequency of militia and insurgent attacks suggested that after major security gains last fall, the conflict has drifted into something of a stalemate, as overall violence has remained fairly steady over the last several months. The streets have become tense and much more dangerous again after a period of calm.

It is not clear how responsible restive Mahdi Army militia commanders are for stalling what had been rapid progress in reducing violence. In recent weeks, commanders have protested continuing American and Iraqi raids and detentions of militia members.

If the cease-fire were to unravel, there is little doubt of the mayhem that could be stirred up by Mr. Sadr, who forced the United States military to mount two bloody offensives against his fighters in 2004 as much of the country exploded in violence.

Sadiq al-Rikabi, the prime minister’s political adviser, and other Iraqi officials said that just how the unrest in Baghdad was related to the crackdown in Basra is still unknown.

Sadr City, the neighborhood that is the center of the Mahdi Army’s power, was sealed off by a cordon of Iraqi troops and what appeared to be several American units. A New York Times photographer who was able to get through the cordon found more layers of checkpoints, each one manned by about two dozen heavily-armed Mahdi Army fighters clad in tracksuits and t-shirts. Tires burned in the city center, gunfire echoed against the shuttered stores and teams of fighters in pick-up trucks moved about brandishing machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket propelled grenades.

“We are doing this in reaction to the unprovoked military operations against the Mahdi Army,” said a Mahdi commander who identified himself as Abu Mortada “The U.S., the Iraqi government and SCIRI are against us,” he said, referring to a rival Shia group whose name has changed several times, and is now known as the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which has an armed wing called the Badr Organization.

“They are trying to finish us,” the commander said. “They want power for the Iraqi government and SCIRI.”

Basra, which until 2005 enjoyed relative peace, has since been riven by violent power struggles among the Mahdi Army and local Shiite rivals, such as the Badr Organization and another one controlled by the Fadhila political party, a group that split from the Sadr party.

In the weeks leading up to the operation, Iraqi officials indicated that part of the operation would be aimed at the Fadhila groups, who are widely believed to be in control of Basra’s lucrative port operations and other parts of the city. The ports have been plagued by corruption, draining revenue that could flow to the central and local governments. But the operation also threatens the Mahdi Army’s strongholds in Basra.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government depends for support from the SCIRI party, but is less dependent now on coalitions with the Mahdi Army.

In Basra, Iraq’s most important oil-exporting center, thousands of Iraqi government soldiers and police moved into the city around 5 a.m. and engaged in pitched battles with Shiite militia members that have taken over big swathes of that city.

The operation in Basra, which senior Iraqi officials had been signaling for weeks, is considered so important by the Iraqi government that Prime Minister Maliki had traveled personally to the city to direct the fighting, several officials said.

Although Sadr officials said the cease-fire was still in effect, Mr. Sadr on Monday called for a nationwide civil disobedience campaign in response to what his followers say is an unwarranted crackdown.

Some Mahdi commanders appealed to an edict by Mr. Sadr saying that if they were attacked, their militias had the right of self-defense.

A member of Mr. Sadr’s political party in Basra, Sheik Abdul Sattar al-Bahadli, complained bitterly about the enormous operation, claiming that it was aimed at innocent people in Basra.

“We never witnessed such attacks even under the regime of Saddam Hussein,” Mr. Bahadli said. “Maliki gave orders and said, ‘Erase them.’”

But Mr. Maliki said in a statement on Tuesday that the operation was designed to roust out what he called “outlaws” with, he said, local confederates inside and outside the government.

“The federal government, pressed by its obligations to support the local government in Basra and support its officials, has decided to restore security and stability and impose the law.”

An American military official said that the American-led coalition forces had provided air transportation for the operation and were keeping “quick reaction forces” on standby in case they were needed.

The official said coalition forces had supported Iraqi security forces in clashes around Sadr City with “special groups” – a term reserved for what American commanders believe are Iranian-backed Shiite splinter groups, which include portions of the Mahdi Army.

“A coalition forces helicopter also engaged targets north of Sadr City in support of this operation,” the official said, asserting that despite the fighting, most of Baghdad had been peaceful and that there were still signs of progress on security in most areas of Iraq and its capital.

“We feel that the cease-fire is being honored” by those loyal to Mr. Sadr, the official said. The cease-fire, he said, “is in the best interest of all Iraqis.”

But many places in Baghdad were tense. At a checkpoint downtown, a policeman’s radio crackled the news of the sniper shooting of police officer in a nearby neighborhood. “We’ve heard that Sadr has canceled the cease-fire, is this true?” he asked motorists whose car he was searching.

Witnesses in Basra said that jets flew overhead as armored vehicles raced through the city and machine gun and canon fire reverberated through the streets. Civilians took refuge in their homes. Iraqi television showed images of civilian gunmen with rocket propelled grenade launchers taking up positions and ambulances ferrying the wounded to hospitals.

After approximately six hours of silence after darkness fell, armored vehicles and helicopters could again be heard moving through the city, witnesses said. There were sounds of gunfire and shelling to the north.

In Baghdad, some areas were deserted as clashes broke out across the city. In downtown Baghdad, checkpoints blocked sparse traffic every 100 yards.

Saeed Ammar, a government employee, said that he was standing near policemen in the Hurrya neighborhood this morning when he was approached by Mahdi Army members. “They told me not to stand near checkpoints. They said, ‘We are waiting for the word from Moktada Sadr to attack the checkpoints—it may come at any moment.’”

Despite the armed actions by many Sadr followers, members of Sadr’s party said that the cease-fire was still in effect and called for peaceful civil disobedience. In Najaf, hundreds of followers carrying Qurans and olive branches mounted a sit-in, chanting, “No to occupation, no to terrorism.”

Sahar Gani, a teacher, was taking school children home along a nearly deserted Baghdad sidewalk. “The security situation is getting worse day by day. The city is getting very bad now, she said. We’ve been through this before, so we find it natural. But we don’t know what to do.”

Reporting was contributed by Joao Silva, Anwar J. Ali and Hosham Hussein from Baghdad, and employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, Basra, Hilla, Diwaniya and Kut.

source: 25mar2008