BAGHDAD — Followers of hardline cleric Muqtada al-Sadr raised the stakes Sunday in the showdown with Iraq’s government, refusing to disband their militia. The U.S. military said 40 Shiite militants were killed in fierce fighting in southern Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, assured visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he will not back down in his confrontation with Shiite militias, even as mortar shells fired from Shiite areas struck the U.S.-protected Green Zone.
In a sign of that resolve, Iraqi soldiers took control Sunday of the last stronghold of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia in the southern city of Basra, where an Iraqi offensive last month triggered the current wave of Shiite fighting.
Al-Maliki, a Shiite, has demanded that al-Sadr disband his Mahdi Army, the country’s biggest Shiite militia, or his followers will not be allowed to run in provincial elections this fall.
Al-Sadr’s followers rejected that demand Sunday and instead called for an end to U.S.-Iraqi military operations in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the Mahdi Army, and Shula, another Shiite district of the capital.
Sadrist lawmaker Fawzi Akram called the government campaign against the Mahdi Army a “filthy military and media campaign” planned and supported by the Americans. He urged the United Nations, nongovernmental organizations and human rights groups to intervene.
“Random airstrikes, killings and bloodletting will not help but rather will increase hatred and enmity,” he said, adding that if operations continue “all options are open for us.”
That could include the formal scrapping of a unilateral truce al-Sadr called in August, a move that American officials credit with helping dramatically reduce violence over the last year.
Since the Basra crackdown began March 25, that truce is in tatters, with fighting in the Baghdad area and scattered clashes still under way throughout the Shiite south.
The anti-American cleric has accused the government of exploiting his August truce to crack down on his political movement and warned Saturday that he would declare “open war” if the campaign against him did not stop.
A full-scale uprising by al-Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq.
Also Sunday, the family of a contractor kidnapped in Iraq said U.S. officials have notified them they’ve found a body that could be his. Jonathon Cote was one of six Western contractors kidnapped in two separate incidents. The Getzville, N.Y., resident was working for Crescent Security Group when he and four colleagues were abducted in November 2006.
The FBI has already identified the remains of CSG employees Paul Johnson-Reuben of Minneapolis; Joshua Munns of Redding, Calif.; John Roy Young of Kansas City, Mo.; Bert Nussbaumer of Austria; and Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, who was working for JPI Worldwide and was abducted on Jan. 5, 2007.
U.S. military death
The latest identification reported by the U.S. military of personnel killed in Iraq:
Army Staff Sgt. Jason L. Brown, 29, Magnolia, Texas; killed by small-arms fire Thursday during combat in Sama Village, Iraq; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, Fort Campbell, Ky.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
