Shi'ites in Baghdad protest crackdown

Authorities set curfew to quell the violence

A man burned an image of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a protest in the Kazimiyah neighborhood of Baghdad. (Hadi Mizban/Associated Press)

BAGHDAD - In a sign of growing rage against the Iraqi and US governments, tens of thousands of Shi'ites marched in their strongholds across Baghdad yesterday to protest a crackdown on Shi'ite militiamen that has led to more than 125 deaths.

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The government announced a curfew across the capital until Sunday in an attempt to quell violence, which has spread to several cities since the offensive began Tuesday in the southern city of Basra.

Loyalists of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rejected US and Iraqi assertions that the Basra operation was aimed at rogue militiamen, and insisted it was targeting Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. A statement released late yesterday by Sadr's political office said the clergyman remained committed to a cease-fire that Sadr imposed on his militia last August.

"Moqtada al-Sadr is calling on everyone to follow political solutions and peaceful protest, and not to spill Iraqi blood, to reach a solution to the current crisis," the statement said.

But a fourth day of ferocious rocket and mortar attacks in and around the US-guarded Green Zone, home to the US Embassy and most Iraqi government offices, underscored the sense among Shi'ite fighters that the United States and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were working to cripple Sadr's movement ahead of local elections planned this fall.

The US military said the attacks were launched from Shi'ite areas of eastern Baghdad and that American forces killed two "terrorists" yesterday suspected of involvement in the barrages. An American civilian working with the US Embassy was among those killed yesterday when a rocket was fired into the Green Zone in central Baghdad.

The showdown has placed Iraqi and US officials in an awkward position. Both have described the Iraqi Security Force crackdown as a sign of Maliki's determination to stabilize areas plagued by fighting between rival Shi'ite militias. But they also are insisting that Sadr's fighters are not the problem, despite his militia's role in such unrest. Mollifying Sadr is crucial if he is to continue his cease-fire, which is credited with helping to reduce violence nationwide.

"This is not the Sadr trend led by Sayyid Moqtada Sadr that has been the ongoing source of violence and instability," said a US Embassy spokesman, Philip Reeker. His use of the honorific "Sayyid" was a sign of the United States' attempts to remain on relatively good terms with Sadr.

Reeker blamed a "subset" of the Mahdi Army for the violence. "They really are essentially criminal militias, and they are the ones that have been the difficulty in Basra," said Reeker.

Such statements have been met with skepticism from Sadr supporters.

"They made this crisis because the Sadr movement, they feel, will be an obstacle in the upcoming elections. They feel they won't succeed in the elections," said Abu Ali, a Mahdi Army member in Sadr City. The Baghdad slum is a stronghold of Sadr, and thousands took part in yesterday's march.

Ali said violence would soar if Maliki did not halt the operation and meet Sadr's demands for negotiations. "We will be more determined. Enough humiliation," he said.

Maliki reiterated his demand that "criminal gangs" causing unrest in Basra should disarm within a three-day deadline that expires tomorrow.

"We are capable of facing any forces everywhere. We are determined to eradicate these criminal gangs. There will not be any negotiations with them," he said. Maliki also made a point of not naming Sadr's Mahdi Army as the troublemaker.

Scores of people have died since the fighting erupted early Tuesday, including at least 80 in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, police said.

They said another 45 people had died in Kut, the capital of Wasit Province, in clashes between militiamen and Iraqi security forces.

In Baghdad, the dead have included at least two Americans fatally injured by rockets fired into the Green Zone Sunday and yesterday. The State Department ordered employees yesterday not to go outside without wearing helmets and flak vests, harkening back to the summer when daily bombardments were the norm.

At least five barrages hit the Green Zone or nearby neighborhoods yesterday, the US military said.