Sadr City's 'daily massacre' rages as death toll soars

By Edmund Sanders
Los Angeles Times

GHAITH ABDUL-AHAD / GETTY IMAGES An Iraqi militiaman loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr fires a mortar round during fighting between Sadr's Mahdi Army and U.S. forces Sunday in the eastern Baghdad district of Sadr City, Iraq.

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One banner laments a son killed "defending his country." Some bear photographs of the dead. A few have two, three, even four names squeezed onto a single black banner.

As Iraqi and U.S. leaders focus on ending the bloodshed in the southern holy cities of Najaf, Kufa and Karbala, Baghdad's back yard is quietly boiling over.

U.S. military officials estimate they have killed more than 800 Iraqis in Sadr City over the past nine weeks — nearly a dozen a day — in battles with the al-Mahdi Army, the militia of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. That is more than twice as many as the number reported killed in similar fighting in southern Iraq.

"It's a daily massacre," said Qassim Kadim, a native of Sadr City, also known as Thawra.

At least 14 U.S. soldiers have died in and near Sadr City since April, including five killed Friday when their convoy was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade on the outskirts of Sadr City, and two killed Saturday by a roadside bomb at the same location.

The cycle of violence began two months ago after al-Sadr's militia seized control of mosques, government offices and police stations in several Shiite Muslim cities and neighborhoods, including Sadr City, which was named after al-Sadr's father, a revered cleric who was assassinated during the Saddam regime.

Most of the Iraqi dead are young, unemployed men who joined al-Sadr's militia and have orders to shoot U.S. forces on sight. Others are bystanders caught in the cross fire, such as a 14-year-old boy killed Sunday by a roadside bomb targeting a passing U.S. convoy.

There are no gold-domed mosques here, no historical sites to draw the world's attention. As it has been for decades, residents complain, the suffering in Sadr City, a sprawling neighborhood of 3 million Iraqis who were severely oppressed by Saddam Hussein, goes largely unnoticed.

"So many people are dying here, and no one cares," said Mohammed Khala, 57, a video-arcade owner whose apartment was recently riddled with bullets and shrapnel from U.S. tanks attacking militiamen who had taken refuge behind his home. His hand was broken and his 5-year-old daughter suffered shrapnel wounds in the head, he said.

With few exceptions, street fights and gunbattles have been a nightly ritual. Al-Sadr's forces regularly mortar U.S. bases and Iraqi police stations used by American soldiers.

U.S. troops razed al-Sadr's office last month, but his followers defiantly rebuilt it in a day. When residents emerge in the mornings, they confront a trail of burned cars, bullet casings and bodies.

"The other day I was walking home and found a man just lying in the street," said Raad Mehemdawi, 32, a warehouse worker. "When I went to help him, I realized he was dead. I called his friends in the Mahdi Army and they came and carried him away."

Sadr City residents once welcomed U.S. soldiers. But over time, they say, many have lost patience with lingering electricity outages, sewage problems and perceived disrespect by soldiers of the community's religious leaders and symbols.

Last summer, soldiers knocked a religious banner off a transmission tower, sparking a small riot that ended with a U.S. helicopter firing into a crowd. More recently, residents say soldiers have taken to removing the ubiquitous pictures of al-Sadr from billboards and fences.

"People are very resentful," said Jalbar Braian, 45, a car salesman. "We just want the Americans to go away."

U.S. military officials note that the slum's problems predate the U.S.-led invasion, which began in March 2003. They say most residents support the U.S. presence but are afraid to speak out for fear of retribution by the al-Mahdi Army. About a month ago, a local councilman who was working with the United States was kidnapped and hanged from an electricity pole.

"If we just pulled out, the militia would take control, and 90 percent of the people here don't want that to happen," said Lt. Col. Gary Volesky, battalion commander of the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division in Sadr City. "The police can't handle it."

He said the area has 500 Iraqi police officers but needs nearly 7,000.

Police in the community are trying to avoid taking sides. One officer was demoted when he said he would refuse to fight the militia, according to Lt. Col. Raheem Qadir of the Nasr police station.

U.S. soldiers occupied Qadir's station house for nearly a month until he finally asked them to leave because their presence was drawing attacks from the militia, damaging nearby homes, Qadir said. After the soldiers left, al-Mahdi Army fighters told him to remove the sandbags from his roof, which was being used by U.S. snipers. He complied.

"I don't see this as an army," Qadir said. "It's an uprising against the occupation. Citizens of any country being occupied by another country would react in the same way."

But on Sunday, 15 Mahdi Army members attacked his police station again, first ordering officers to leave the building, then setting off a small explosion that destroyed some ammunition and a roomful of furniture.

Unlike southern Iraq, there are no truce talks or cease-fire negotiations in Sadr City.

But Volesky's unit is stepping up efforts to win over residents with humanitarian projects, spending $1.1 million to fix the sewage system, which leaks into the streets. Over the weekend, troops began distributing several hundred thousand dollars in supplies to pediatricians.

But such efforts are often overshadowed by street fighting and attacks. In one day last week, al-Sadr's militiamen and U.S. troops engaged in 21 battles. Volesky insists that the vast majority of those killed are al-Mahdi Army fighters, not civilians.

"We are very precise," he said.

The heavy losses of the militia reflect the youth and inexperience of the ragtag army. Some are still in their teens. At times, even U.S. military officials express concern about the one-sidedness of the battles.

"As a soldier, it's tough to go out and have to fight, and I can tell you it's even tougher when you've got 17-year-old kids picking up (rocket-propelled grenades) and aiming them at you," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the top U.S. military spokesman, said in a recent briefing.

"It's very tough to have to do your job at that time, and we don't take any glory and we don't take any pride in having to do it. So, frankly, any time we have to kill one of those kids because he's aiming a weapon at us, aiming an RPG at one of our soldiers, aiming a rifle at one of our tanks, it's not a good day."

Los Angeles Times special correspondents Raheem Salman, Saif Rasheed and Caesar Ahmed contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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