Move against Shiite cleric could spark more clashes in Iraq

By Mohamad Bazzi
Newsday

	WATHIQ KHUZAIE / GETTY IMAGES Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr rally with weapons and images of the Shiite cleric yesterday in Sadr City, Iraq. He won new support after U.S. soldiers closed his weekly newspaper in Baghdad on March 28.
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Any attempt to arrest al-Sadr is likely to further outrage his supporters and could unleash a widespread Shiite Muslim uprising that feeds on the sect's tradition of martyrdom and challenge of foreign powers.

Al-Sadr "is attempting to establish his authority in the place of the legitimate authority," said L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq. "We will not tolerate this."

Bremer canceled a trip to Washington, D.C., where he was to have briefed Senators on Thursday, a Senate aide told The Associated Press yesterday. No reason was given for the postponement.

Al-Sadr, 30, a junior cleric who has fiercely denounced the U.S. occupation since its early days, has been encamped since Friday with several hundred supporters in the main mosque in the southern city of Kufa. He vowed yesterday to resist any U.S. attempt to arrest him.

U.S.-led forces were facing armed conflict on two fronts yesterday: in Sunni cities and towns such as Fallujah, where Saddam Hussein drew his base of support, and in Shiite-dominated parts of Baghdad and southern Iraq. Although Shiites form the majority of Iraq's 24 million people, they were brutally repressed by Saddam, a Sunni.

U.S. Marines and Iraqi police surrounded Fallujah, which is 35 miles west of Baghdad, and sealed all roads leading in and out of the city. One Marine was reported killed in fighting early in the day.

Military officials said troops were poised for a "major operation" in Fallujah, where insurgents killed four U.S. civilian security guards last week. After that ambush, a cheering mob beat the charred bodies and hung two of them from a bridge.

Key Shiite leaders A look at some of the main Shiite leaders in Iraq. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini Al-Sistani: The top Shiite cleric, 75, has great influence over the Shiite community and has opposed anti-U.S. violence. His criticism of U.S. plans for handing power to the Iraqis on June 30 — an attempt to ensure Shiite domination of a future government — forced Americans to change plans. He rarely leaves Najaf, where he heads the Hawza, the top Shiite seminary. Powerful Shiite tribes have sent men to guard him. Muqtada al-Sadr: The son of Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, a grand ayatollah slain by Saddam Hussein's forces in 1999, has emerged as a leader among disenchanted and poor Shiites, particularly the young. After Saddam's ouster, his followers established security and services in Sadr City, Baghdad's Shiite slum, as well as in some parts of southern Iraq. He is suspect with many Shiites because of his relatively low clerical status — he bears the title hojat al-islam — and his radical slant. He has spoken out harshly against the U.S. occupation and is backed by his private militia, the Mahdi Army. Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim: A powerful member of the Governing Council, al-Hakim has allied himself with al-Sistani. He heads the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and opposed Saddam from exile before returning after the U.S. invasion. Al-Hakim is backed by his organization's armed wing, the Badr Brigade, in several southern cities and around holy sites. His brother, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, was assassinated by a car bomb in Najaf last year. — The Associated Press

U.S. military commanders, who have nearly completed a massive troop rotation, said the clashes between their forces and al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army on Sunday amounted to the heaviest fighting since nearly a year ago, when President Bush said major combat had ended in Iraq.

"They've essentially declared themselves hostile to us, and so now we're looking for them specifically," said Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the commander in charge of troops in Baghdad, The Washington Post reported.

Top U.S. commanders in Iraq are drawing up options that could bring in more troops to deal with a possible "worst-case scenario" of widening violence, a senior military officer said yesterday.

The officer stressed that he doesn't foresee the need for additional U.S. troops but acknowledged that the recent attacks had caused Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, to take a fresh look at war plans to ensure that U.S. forces would be prepared if the violence escalates.

U.S. commanders are considering moving some troops to Basra, which the British have controlled since the war ended, to help quell violence there, one Pentagon official said.

The rotation has caused a slight but temporary bump in U.S. forces in Iraq — up to 134,000 from the usual 120,000 — because of an overlap between incoming and departing troops. Another option expected to be considered is keeping some of the departing forces a little longer for the added firepower, the Pentagon official said.

Bush vowed yesterday to stick to the June 30 deadline for handing sovereignty to the Iraqis.

"My intention is to make sure the deadline remains the same," Bush said. "We've got to stay the course, and we will stay the course."

U.S. officials announced yesterday that the warrant for al-Sadr's arrest was issued several months ago by an Iraqi judge investigating the April 2003 slaying of Shiite cleric Abdul Majid al-Khoei, a rival of al-Sadr's.

Al-Khoei was stabbed to death by an angry mob outside the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. Al-Khoei, who had returned only days earlier from 12 years of exile in London, had gone to the mosque to conduct a reconciliation meeting.

U.S. officials said the Iraqi judge recently had requested that al-Sadr be arrested, but some Shiites are likely to dismiss the warrant as a political move.

A senior coalition spokesman in Iraq, Dan Senor, said U.S. forces planned to arrest him, but he declined to say when.

In recent months, al-Sadr had been losing popularity. But after U.S. soldiers closed al-Sadr's weekly newspaper in Baghdad on March 28, accusing it of inciting violence, the young cleric won new support and established himself as the fiercest Shiite critic of the U.S. occupation.

Al-Sadr's followers took to the streets to protest the paper's closure and, in subsequent days, the arrest of a senior al-Sadr aide, Mustafa al-Yacoubi, also in connection with the slaying of al-Khoei. The protests turned violent Sunday as members of al-Sadr's black-clad militia, the al-Mahdi Army, mixed through the crowds.

Sunday's clashes occurred in Baghdad and three cities in southern Iraq: Najaf, Nasiriyah and Amarah. The fighting killed more than 50 Iraqis, eight U.S. troops and one Salvadoran soldier.

Al-Sadr's supporters took over the provincial government building in Basra and fought with British troops there.

The fiercest battles took place in Sadr City, a Shiite slum in Baghdad where al-Sadr's men ambushed U.S. troops as they tried to retake control of seized government buildings.

The neighborhood, which is home to 2 million people, was tense but largely quiet yesterday. The municipal building was surrounded by 12 U.S. Abrams tanks and armored personnel carriers.

On a main street, dozens of children danced on the charred remains of a U.S. Humvee that was destroyed Sunday night. One man picked through the wreckage for scrap metal and loaded his bounty on the back of a white donkey.

Some Sadr City residents were equally angry at the cleric and U.S. forces.

"There was a needless escalation from both sides," said Mostafa Hussein, 47, a grocery-store owner who sat outside his shuttered shop, fearing looters or another firefight. "We got rid of Saddam one year ago, but we still have a war going on our doorsteps."

Information from Knight Ridder Newspapers, The Associated Press and The Washington Post is included in this report.

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