Posted on 06/12/2004 12:14:57 PM PDT by motife
June 12, 2004 INSURGENCY In Shift, Rebel Iraqi Cleric Backs New Government He Had Once Mocked By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 11 - The anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on Friday endorsed the new interim Iraqi government and appeared to urge his followers to honor a week-old cease-fire that has been frayed by continuing violence.
A senior aide to Mr. Sadr, Sheik Jabir al-Khafaji, used a sermon during Friday Prayers in the Sadr stronghold of Kufa, 120 miles south of here, to announce that Mr. Sadr now approved of the interim government he had previously mocked and that he wanted its leaders to set a timetable for the departure of occupation forces.
" 'From now on, I beg you to start afresh for Iraq for the sake of peace and safety,' " Sheik Khafaji quoted Mr. Sadr as saying. " 'We have to avoid pushing humiliation and aggression on others and go forward with the independence of Iraq and not respond to the occupiers.' "
Those words represent a radical reversal of Mr. Sadr's past position. They could also represent an effort by Mr. Sadr to become involved in the politics of the nation, rather than continue as a leader of a 10-week-old insurgent struggle.
Sheik Khafaji also asked Mr. Sadr's followers to "obey the supreme leader's orders" and to "thank God for the triumph he received," an implicit request to members of the Mahdi Army to stop attacks and respect the cease-fire reached with the Americans on June 4.
Another Sadr aide said after the sermon that Mr. Sadr's change of position did not mean that he supported the occupation or American involvement in the new government, but rather that he hoped the new government would work for the interests of Iraqis. Mr. Sadr met last Saturday with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, but it was unclear whether Ayatollah Sistani had persuaded Mr. Sadr to reverse his opposition to the new government.
At the same time that Mr. Sadr's faction appeared to soften its hard-line position, imams at several Sunni mosques in Baghdad delivered sermons beseeching former officers of the Iraqi Army to join the insurgency and drive out the American-led occupation forces. One such sermon took place at Abu Hanifa mosque in the Sunni-dominated neighborhood of Adhamiya, according to Agence France-Presse.
"Where is the military?" said Sheik Ahmed Hassan al-Taha al-Samarrai. "They have indisputable experience, and their silence means they keep their knowledge to themselves."
"The absence of combat experts from the battlefield is treason in all senses of the word," he added. "It's treason against God, the prophet and the nation the experts belong to."
A resident of the Zaiyuna neighborhood in Baghdad, where many former officers live, reported hearing a similar sermon being broadcast from a Sunni mosque there.
In the south, in the holy city of Najaf where Mr. Sadr lives, many of the young cleric's followers apparently did not hear his message of restraint.
Friday Prayers there were disrupted when violence broke out between his followers and hundreds of supporters of Imam Sadr al-Din al-Kubanchi, one of the leaders of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, an influential Shiite party.
Mr. Kubanchi had called for his followers to stage a peaceful march in support of the cease-fire, but they were met by members of Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army, who began fighting with the crowd inside the sacred Shrine of Ali. The Sadr militiamen then forced everyone from the shrine, where Mr. Kubanchi preaches every Friday, and barricaded the doors.
In Baghdad, fighting continued between American soldiers and the Mahdi Army. Militiamen fired at soldiers in Sadr City and lobbed grenades at them, prompting the Americans to shoot back and call in helicopters, Reuters reported.
In the town of Yusufiya, on the Euphrates River 10 miles south of Baghdad, insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47's at a police station. The policemen fled, and the insurgents entered the station and wired it with explosives. Video on the Arab satellite television network Al Jazeera showed the stationhouse reduced to rubble shortly afterward.
The police called American forces for help, but soldiers did not show up until five hours later, Lt. Satpar Abdul-Reta told The Associated Press.
Attacks on police stations remain commonplace in Iraq, raising serious doubts about whether the American military is prepared to hand over responsibility for security to Iraqi forces in the months after June 30, when the Iraqi government will assume some form of sovereignty.
On Thursday, members of Mr. Sadr's militia overran a police station in central Najaf after overnight gun battles and freed the prisoners. They then allowed looters to plunder the building. The insurgents set at least eight new squad cars on fire.
Members of the Mahdi Army also shot at and blew up a police station last Sunday in the Shiite slum of Sadr City in Baghdad. A more spectacular attack took place the same day in the town of Musayyib, south of the capital, when about 10 men in police uniforms walked into a stationhouse and forced the local officers into their own cells. The attackers wired the place with explosives and detonated them when others arrived to try and free the policemen.
The explosions killed at least 10 Iraqi policemen and 2 civilians.
It was unclear whether the insurgents who attacked the Ghari police station in central Najaf twice this week were following orders from senior commanders in the Mahdi Army or acting on their own. Those attacks were the most serious infractions of the cease-fire. Adnan Zurfi, the governor of Najaf, said Thursday he was prepared to retaliate in full if the Mahdi Army did not back down.
It has been difficult for truces between the Mahdi Army and the occupation forces to stick. The one announced on June 4 was the second cease-fire in several weeks. American soldiers and insurgents continued fighting after the first one was supposed to have gone into effect on May 27.
Dutch Troops to Withdraw From Iraq
THE HAGUE, June 11 (Agence France-Presse) - Dutch troops will leave Iraq in March 2005 as the Dutch government will not renew their mandate after an eight-month extension, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said Friday.
"We are linking our stay to the formation of a new government in Iraq,'' Mr. Balkenende told a news conference. "Eight months and that's that."
Earlier on Friday, the government announced that it would extend the mandate of the some 1,300 Dutch troops stationed in southern Iraq under British command until mid-March in 2005.
"In extraordinary circumstances the mandate could be extended for another 10 days or so after March 15, but in principle the troops will leave on that date," Defense Minister Henk Kamp added.
An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Najaf and Kufa for this article.
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Hey, if it works for Kerry...
He's probably realized that he's not going to be able to win any power for himself by fighting the US forces. I would bet you that, if and when the US does completely leave Iraq, he'll be inciting violence and trying to make a power grab the next day.
Some folks just need killin'. These do.
Young Jedi Moqtada al-Sadr is not on the best of terms within his own branch of Islam. Perhaps a CONSIDERABLE amount of weight came down on him from within the Shi'a hierarchy. Once he surrenders his rather truculent attitude, he may face some serious retaliation from the more senior mullahs. They do not need anybody rocking the boat just now.
I'm sure hoping there is someone who really wants to see him gone. Deals shouldn't be made with the devil.
Heh, I think he was beginning to worry that he was going to get his tookas shot up.
If Sadr and his thugs "walk".....there is NO future for a free and democratic Iraq..
The bastard MUST be tried for his crimes, and if found guilty --- destroyed.
If this phoney, lying, murderous "cleric" is not punished for his actions by the Iraqis themselves -- they can all rot in hell --- and WE should shoot his sorry ass.
Semper Fi
"Heh, I think he was beginning to worry that he was going to get his tookas shot up."
When you have them by the (deleted), their hearts and minds will follow.
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