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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Crowds rally in support of al-Sadr in Baghdad


Supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr argue with an Iraqi soldier as they congregate Friday to show support for al-Sadr in Baghdad, Iraq. Altercations broke out after some of the supporters challenged the soldiers for supporting the U.S. Army.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
From wire reports

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Tens of thousands of people massed here Friday to pray and chant slogans in support of the rebellious cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. forces, meanwhile, continued attacks in two Iraqi cities that insurgents control.

Religious and community leaders assembled crowds to walk from Sadr City, the Baghdad slum named after the cleric’s slain father, to Imam Khadhimain mosque.

The crowd, turning out on a Shiite holiday marking the death of a 9th century imam, was large enough that thousands of worshippers laid carpets across the asphalt on the streets outside and prayed there.

Uncertainty mounted, meanwhile, about al-Sadr’s location and intentions. He and militiamen from his Mahdi Army abandoned a shrine in the city of Najaf under a negotiated settlement to end three weeks of fighting against U.S. and Iraqi forces late last month.

Officials of Iraq’s interim government have been trying to persuade al-Sadr to disarm the militia and turn it into a political organization, but no deal has been reached.

On Friday, men loyal to the cleric kidnapped four Iraqi policemen in Najaf and threatened to kill them unless Iraqi security forces stopped pursuing al-Sadr and his supporters, according to a video aired on the Arab television network al-Jazeera.

The kidnapping came a day after Najaf police raided and searched al-Sadr’s office.

Al-Sadr had accepted a cease-fire under the Najaf agreement. With exceptions such as Thursday’s kidnapping, the Mahdi Army has been largely quiet in Najaf, but has continued to fight U.S. forces in Sadr City.

On Friday, the thousands of people gathered at the Baghdad mosque heard Hazim Araji, a local sheik and an aide to al-Sadr, threaten more bloodshed if U.S. and Iraqi forces continued what Araji said were violations of the Najaf truce.

Araji mentioned attacks this week in Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, and Tall Afar, a city near the Syrian border that U.S. forces have bombed and encircled in an effort to drive out what the military has described as a “large terrorist element.”

The U.S. military said it has been trying to kill supporters of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian linked to al Qaeda who is thought to be using Fallujah as a base of operations. But Arab television has shown repeated images of civilians, including young children, who it reported were killed or injured in the strikes.

Also in Sadr City, fighting resumed between U.S. forces and militants loyal to al-Sadr, wounding seven Iraqis, hospital officials said.

Al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades and bullets at U.S. patrols, which immediately returned fire, said Capt. Brian O’Malley of the 1st Brigade Combat Team. There were no American casualties, he said.

Elsewhere, about 1,000 protesters marched through Najaf’s old quarter demanding that the cleric and his aides leave the devastated holy city, raising tensions a day after a 60-member Iraqi force raided his offices.

The demonstrators – who chanted, “Muqtada, the trash, is a leader of looters!” – walked past buildings wrecked by weeks of fighting that ended with last month’s peace deal, insisting that al-Sadr’s office be shut down. Iraqi soldiers kept the protesters from marching to his offices.

Ever defiant, an al-Sadr lieutenant condemned the raid in a Friday sermon delivered to 2,000 followers at the nearby Kufa mosque, saying it mirrored the brutal tactics used by Saddam Hussein to intimidate Iraqis.

“Those who break into our houses steal money and other things … so what is the difference between them and the former regime?” said al-Sadr aide Hashim Abu Regheef.

He also sought to rally the crowd amid signs of dwindling support for the cleric and his strident opposition to U.S. forces and the interim Iraqi authorities since the al-Mahdi Army lost control of Najaf in late August after weeks of devastating fighting with U.S. Marines.

“We have to sacrifice our lives for his sake,” Regheef told the crowd.