Al-Sadr freezes militia’s operations
BAGHDAD – The powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr publicly ordered his huge militia Wednesday to “freeze” operations for up to six months, but U.S. and Iraqi officials expressed skepticism of the cleric’s intentions and his ability to control the fractured network of fighters who kill in his name.
Al-Sadr issued his order following a day of Shiite-against-Shiite gunfire that killed 49 people during a religious ceremony in the holy city of Karbala. In a statement, he said the freeze would apply to his Mahdi Army militia “without exception in order to have it restructured in a way that would retain for this ideological body its prestige.”
Some officials interpreted the statement to mean al-Sadr had called off attacks on American soldiers as well as Iraqi opponents, but a source close to al-Sadr said some fighting would continue in the name of “self-defense.”
“This does not cover all military activities because there are violations being done by the occupation forces every now and then and we expect that these violations will continue in the future, and in these cases the Mahdi Army members will defend themselves,” said the source, who spoke from al-Sadr’s headquarters in the southern city of Najaf.
Tuesday’s street fighting took place as hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims milled around Karbala during a religious festival.
By official accounts, the fighting pitted government security forces against unidentified gunmen. But many in Karbala described it as a battle between the two main Shiite militias vying for power in southern Iraq, the Mahdi Army and the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. Officials from both groups condemned the bloodshed and denied that their fighters took part.
The legions of Shiite men who claim to be members of the Mahdi Army are described by Iraqi and U.S. officials as a relentless force in killing and displacing Sunnis, running extortion schemes and expanding Shiite dominance in Baghdad. Al-Sadr’s organization has also opened dozens of offices to provide social services to Shiites.
But U.S. and Iraqi officials also depict the organization as weakened by the recent arrests of several mid-level commanders, by al-Sadr’s frequent absences in Iran, and by the departure of the party’s Cabinet ministers and parliament members from the government.
“As far as Sadr, I wouldn’t put too much stock into what he says,” said a U.S. military official in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He’s been spending most of his time in Iran and because of that, probably has little control over some of the more militant factions” of the Mahdi Army.
In places where the Mahdi Army is strong, such as the Shiite enclave of Kadhimiyah in Baghdad, officials said, it is doubtful that profit-motivated criminal gangs that operate under al-Sadr’s banner would change their behavior.
Many groups claiming to be part of the Mahdi Army do not respond to commands from the group’s central base in Najaf, according to Lt. Col. Steven Miska, a deputy brigade commander based in Kadhimiyah. He suggested that al-Sadr’s statement could be “a political ruse” by which the militia would say publicly it had shut down but continue operations.