U.S. forces join Iraqi army, police in battle against Mahdi Army in Baghdad
BAGHDAD – U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad, as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting.
Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of American weapons, along with the Mahdi Army’s AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead.
The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, saying death squads, criminal gangs and rogue militias were the targets. The Mahdi Army of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite rival of al-Maliki, appeared to have taken the brunt of the attacks; fighting spread to many southern cities and parts of Baghdad.
As President Bush told an Ohio audience that Iraq was returning to “normalcy,” administration officials in Washington held meetings to assess what appeared to be rapidly deteriorating security in many parts of the country.
Al-Maliki decided to launch the offensive without consulting his U.S. allies, according to administration officials. With little U.S. presence in the south, and British forces in Basra confined to an air base outside the city, one administration official said that “we can’t quite decipher” what is going on. It’s a question, he said, of “who’s got the best conspiracy” theory about why al-Maliki decided to act now.
In Basra, three rival Shiite groups have been trying to position themselves, sometimes through force of arms, to dominate recently approved provincial elections.
The U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said they believe Iran has provided assistance in the past to all three groups – the Mahdi Army; the Badr Organization of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Iraq’s largest Shiite party; and forces loyal to the Fadhila Party, which holds the Basra governor’s seat. But the officials see the current conflict as a purely internal Iraqi dispute.
Some officials have concluded that al-Maliki himself is firing “the first salvo in upcoming elections,” the administration official said.
“His dog in that fight is that he is basically allied with the Badr Corps” against forces loyal to al-Sadr, the official said. “It’s not a pretty picture.”
Elements of al-Sadr’s militia have fought fiercely, including rocketing the Green Zone, the huge fortified compound in Baghdad where the U.S. Embassy, Iraqi government offices and international agencies are located.
Starting about 5:25 p.m., the Post reporter heard the launch of 14 rockets, which Mahdi Army officers in the area said were aimed at the Green Zone. U.S. officials reported that 12 rounds hit the zone in that time frame, including six that fell inside the embassy compound. An American civilian contractor was killed in a residential area of the embassy compound, while another death was reported in the zone’s U.N. compound.
Several Mahdi Army commanders said they had been fighting U.S. forces for the past three days in Sadr City. By their account, an Iraqi special forces unit had entered Sadr City from another direction, backed by Americans, but otherwise the fighting had not been with Iraqis.
“If there were no Americans, there would be no fighting,” said Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, 38, a senior Mahdi Army member.
In August, al-Sadr ordered his militia to observe a cease-fire, a move widely credited with helping to reduce violence across Iraq. In recent days, al-Sadr officials have said the cease-fire remains in force. But in practice, his fighters and Iraqi and U.S. forces are waging full-scale war in places. Further fighting with his men could slow U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq.
American commanders said in recent days that their units were taking only a backup role in the offensive and that Iraqi forces were growing strong enough to shoulder the country’s security needs.
Maj. Mark Cheadle, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said he could not make an accurate assessment of what the Post reporter saw without knowing the precise location. He underlined that U.S. troops were playing a backup role in the offensive but that on a battlefield that is “360 degrees,” it might seem at times that they were out front. If an Iraqi unit was about to be overwhelmed by an enemy, “of course we are going to assist.”
On Thursday, thousands of followers of al-Sadr turned out for a peaceful demonstration in Baghdad. Iraqi television channels carried crowd scenes in which people carried a coffin draped in flags and decorated with a portrait of al-Maliki. They denounced him as a “new dictator” and chanted: “Maliki keep your hands off. People do not want you.”
Gunmen wearing police commando uniforms stormed the Baghdad home of a well-known member of al-Maliki’s government, Tahseen al-Sheikhli, and took him hostage, according to the Information Ministry. Al-Sheikhli is a chief spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, in charge of building public support for government efforts to quell violence in the city.
As fighting continued in Basra, saboteurs blew up one of the city’s main oil pipelines. Gunmen opened fire on the city’s police chief, wounding him and killing three of his bodyguards.