[R-G] Six Days of Clashes Across Iraq

[Anthony Fenton]

Six Days of Clashes Across Iraq
Sadr Calls for Ceasefire

By PATRICK COCKBURN
http://counterpunch.com/patrick03312008.html

Muqtada al-Sadr called on his Mehdi Army militia to stop fighting  
Iraqi government forces in a surprise move after six days of clashes.  
The Shia cleric also demanded that the government cease arresting his  
followers and release those detained.

"Because of the religious responsibility, and to stop Iraqi blood  
being shed, we call for an end to armed appearances in Basra and all  
other provinces," said a statement from Mr Sadr's office in Najaf.

The government is said by the Sadrists to have agreed to stop random  
arrests and allow the Mehdi Army to keep its weapons.

The Sadrists' ceasefire was unexpected since they have prevented  
government forces from advancing in Basra and Baghdad. Hours before  
the announcement, militiamen stormed the state television station in  
Basra, forcing the guards to flee and setting armoured vehicles on fire.

A government spokesman said the statementby Mr Sadr was "positive and  
responsible" and claimed that the operation to overcome the militias  
in Basra would continue. The Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, had  
earlier pledged "a decisive and final battle" against militias, though  
the only one targeted was the Mehdi Army. Yet last night, fighting  
continued in Basra. And seven people were killed when a mortar struck  
a residential district in Baghdad's Karradah district and witnesses  
reported clashes in the Shula area in a northern section of the capital.

The government's plan to win control of Basra may now be abandoned,  
after more than 300 deaths. Its authority was further damaged when  
soldiers were shown on television handing over their weapons to the  
Mehdi Army.

Many Iraqi politicians are convinced Mr Maliki's sudden and ill- 
prepared attack on Basra was an attempt to crush the Mehdi Army before  
October's provincial elections, in which he fears defeat for him and  
his main ally, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI). The ISCI  
may also have wanted to force the Mehdi Army into a direct  
confrontation with US forces, something that Mr Sadr has long sought  
to avoid. The resistance of his militiamen was drawing in the  
Americans as US helicopters and planes attacked Mehdi Army positions.

Followers of Mr Sadr handed out sweets as a symbol of victory in his  
main stronghold of Sadr City, though hours later, rockets were still  
being fired towards the government and American headquarters in the  
Green Zone. The US military was shocked at the speed with which the  
crisis span out of control. Boasts about the ability of the Iraqi army  
to cope on its own are demonstrably untrue.
Prior to Mr Sadr's statement, Baghdad was under a curfew, which was  
expected to be lifted today.

In Basra, a mortar bomb fired by the Mehdi Army hit the palace housing  
the Iraqi military operations centres, killing one of Mr Maliki's top  
military advisers.

Patrick Cockburn is the author of 'The Occupation: War, resistance and  
daily life in Iraq', a finalist for the National Book Critics' Circle  
Award for best non-fiction book of 2006. His new book 'Muqtada!  
Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia revival and the struggle for Iraq' is  
published by Scribner.