Al-Sadr pulls out of local elections

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The movement of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Saturday that it would not take part in provincial elections this year, one day after it formed a new paramilitary group to fight U.S. troops.

The back-to-back moves suggested that al-Sadr is trying to bolster his position as the chief opponent of both the American troops in the country and the Iraqi government, following a year in which he ordered his Mahdi Army militia to observe a cease-fire and moved deeper into the political process.

Al-Sadr’s aides said he is recalibrating his strategy as the American military drawdown transforms the U.S. role in Iraq.

“We don’t want anybody to blame us or consider us part of this government while it is allowing the country to be under occupation,” said Liwa Smeisim, head of the al-Sadr movement’s political committee.

The announcement came as Iraqi officials deployed tens of thousands of security forces across southern Iraq in response to the creation of the new al-Sadr group. The new secret paramilitary wing, which al-Sadr called “the special companies,” might start launching attacks within the next week, his aides said.

In the holy city of Najaf, officials said 20,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers were being put on high alert and deployed to protect the Imam Ali shrine and the home of the grand ayatollahs. They said another 17,000 security troops were deployed in and around the nearby holy city of Karbala.

And in the eastern city of Amarah, a stronghold of the al-Sadr movement, Iraqi forces massed in preparation for an operation against Shiite militiamen. U.S. officials have said Amarah, the capital of Maysan province, is used as a center for smuggling weapons from Iran.

Speaking about provincial elections, which are scheduled for this fall, aides to al-Sadr said the movement would support “technocrats and independent politicians” to prevent rival political parties from dominating local governments. But they said the movement would not put forward its own candidates.

“Sayyid Muqtada does not believe in elections or in the coming provincial governments as long as the occupation forces are here,” said Salah al-Obaidi, a top aide to al-Sadr and his chief spokesman, using an honorific to signify al-Sadr’s descent from the prophet Muhammad.

But some Iraqis saw both of al-Sadr’s recent decisions as a sign of his movement’s frailty following military offensives by the Iraqi and U.S. militaries against his supporters in the southern city of Basra and the Sadr City area of the capital.

Critics of al-Sadr say he is pulling out of the elections to avoid embarrassing losses and keeping most of the Mahdi Army from fighting so that it will not face defeat by U.S. and Iraqi troops.

“These statements and allegations of special companies are nothing but attempts to cover up their weakness,” said Kassim Ali, 24, a student at the Kufa Technical Institute. “The Mahdi Army cannot face up to the well-trained and well-equipped Iraqi army.”

Abu Zainab al-Garawie, the head of al-Sadr’s office in Diwaniyah, said the newly formed special companies would assert their strength by launching attacks within a month, and possibly by next week.