BAGHDAD — U.S. and Iraqi soldiers raided the Shiite district of Sadr City on Thursday and arrested 16 people. The U.S. military said later that one detainee died from wounds received during the operation.
Hours after the assault on the stronghold of Muqtada al-Sadr, the rebellious Shiite cleric warned in a statement that he would expel fighters of his Mahdi Army who violate a six-month-old suspension of military operations against U.S. and allied Iraqi forces. The unilateral cease-fire has been one reason violence in Baghdad has declined over that time.
“Any member of the Mahdi Army who performs armed action during the freeze will be disavowed and will be considered out of the organization,” the statement said. “You should know that our goal is independence.”
Al-Sadr’s cease-fire is partly an attempt to improve his image among Iraqis across sectarian lines, a bid to position himself as a nationalist leader. But it is also designed to help him assert control over what had become an unruly militia comprising tens of thousands of fighters. In recent months, rogue Mahdi Army fighters have ignored his order in some areas of Baghdad and southern Iraq.
U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted the Sadr City operation against what they called “special group criminal elements” that had fired on them and staged ambushes with sophisticated roadside bombs. As troops backed by Humvees and helicopters approached their target house, they came under small-arms fire. The soldiers returned fire, fatally wounding one of the attackers, the military said. A woman also suffered minor injuries, the military said.
“Criminal elements who insist on ignoring al-Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr’s cease-fire pledge remain a threat not only to the citizens of Baghdad but to the security of Iraq,” said Lt. Col. James Hutton, a U.S. military spokesman.
Salah al-Obaidi, a senior al-Sadr spokesman in the southern city of Najaf, denounced the raid. But he said any decision to end the cease-fire would be up to al-Sadr.
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