Iraqi cleric hints at violence against US
BAGHDAD -- Thousands of supporters of Iraq's most fiery Shi'ite Muslim cleric marched yesterday, after their leader hinted that his opposition to US forces could soon turn violent, equated the US presence with Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands, and expressed solidarity with two of the Jewish state's worst enemies.
Moqtada al-Sadr, a 30-year-old cleric popular with poor, urban Shi'ites, generally has taken a back seat to the more senior, more moderate Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Sadr's movement has gained new momentum in the past week, drawing thousands of supporters to the streets for three of the past four days to protest moves by occupation authorities, who shut down Sadr's newspaper a week ago and who reportedly detained a cleric close to him yesterday.
Sadr's followers galvanized as the US-led occupation faced rising popular anger in the mostly Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah, where a mob ripped apart the corpses of four US contractors killed in an ambush on Wednesday. Violent resistance or widespread civil disobedience from Shi'ites, who have passively supported the occupation, could overburden occupation authorities as they struggle to establish security and stability before the June 30 deadline to restore sovereignty to Iraq.
Yesterday, members of Sadr's militia, the Army of the Mahdi, paraded through Baghdad's mostly Shi'ite Sadr City section, wearing green headbands and black ski masks that were labeled "martyr."
A group of women covered completely in head-to-toe burkhas also marched. Militia leaders signaled plans to block roads and to launch a strike.
By invoking the Palestinian struggle, Sadr and his supporters tapped into one of the most emotional issues for Iraqis. Echoing a sermon that Sadr delivered at Friday prayers in the southern city of Kufa, they vowed solidarity with the Islamic extremist groups Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, and Hamas, which is centered in the Palestinian territories.
"If demonstrations don't work with the occupation forces, we will declare our support for the Hezbollah and Hamas movements and the actions they are taking against the occupation" by Israel, said Sayyid Amer al-Hussein, chairman of Sadr's office for the eastern half of Baghdad.
"We will be in the same trench with them, against whoever tries to harm Islam and Muslims," Hussein said, adding that the United States and Israel were "two sides of the same coin."
In his sermon Friday in Kufa, near the holy city of Najaf, Sadr also told followers to fight "the occupiers." He urged them to "strike them where you meet them," and said he hoped the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas would accept him as "their striking arm in Iraq," The
Many Iraqis, including Shi'ites, have dismissed Sadr's heightened rhetoric as an effort to raise his political profile. Sadr draws his support from the reputation of his father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Sadr, who was assassinated in 1999 by gunmen who were believed to be working for Saddam Hussein. He lacks the religious authority of Sistani, who has urged Iraqis not to use violence against the occupation.
Still, his remarks tapped into widespread anger in Iraq over Israel's recent killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, and the refusal by the United States to condemn the action. A banner outside Sadr's headquarters yesterday called Yassin "the elite of the elite."
Not all Shi'ites support Sadr, even in Sadr City, the neighborhood of 2 million that is named after the cleric's father.
Saad Ghazal, 37, a barber, said he prefers Sistani. But even a small number of Sadr supporters could stir up trouble among Iraqis frustrated with the pace of reconstruction, he said. "His followers are all hotheads," Ghazal added.
Sadr's newspaper, Al-Hawza, was padlocked after the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority said it had printed lies that could incite violence. Supporters held demonstrations that drew thousands on Wednesday and Friday.
Yesterday, about 3,000 protested in Najaf against the detention of Mustafa al-Yacoubi, a cleric who supports Sadr, and thousands more demonstrated outside the US-led coalition's Baghdad headquarters after a rumor, apparently unfounded, went around that Sadr's Najaf home had been surrounded by troops.
The largest demonstration was the march in Sadr City, which reporters estimated involved 5,000 to 8,000 people. Militia members appeared to have been unarmed except for symbolic swords. The militias' role in security has been a sore point between occupation authorities and Shi'ite factions whose armed wings have been forbidden from carrying weapons.
Militias are organizing to help maintain security on the major Shi'ite holiday of Arbain, which begins Friday. Suicide bombs killed at least 181 pilgrims in Baghdad and Karbala on March 2, on another Shi'ite holiday, and many said the United States had failed to provide security
Dr. Saad Jawad Qanbir, a senior member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a powerful party on the US-appointed Governing Council, said he disagrees with Sadr's approach but hopes the demonstrations and the Fallujah events will push the United States to hand over more security responsibilities to the militias. The Supreme Council's Badr Brigade is one of the largest such groups.
Hussein, the Sadr aide, drew a parallel between the Fallujah attacks and Sadr's opposition.
"I'm not supporting the killing, but when my honor, my money, my religion, myself is being threatened, I should defend myself," he said. "If the violations of the occupation continue, they will leave no choice in front of the Iraqi people but force and resistance."
Material from the Associated Press was included. Barnard can be reached at abarnard@globe.com. 
