Posted on 10/20/2006 12:28:32 PM PDT by Eurotwit
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Shiite militia run by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr briefly seized control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country's powerful, unofficial armies.
The militiamen later withdrew from the streets after Iraqi soldiers and mediators arrived, lifting their siege of police headquarters under a temporary truce negotiated with an al-Sadr envoy. It was not clear whether the cleric knew about his militia's planned takeover in advance.
British military spokesman Maj. Charlie Burbridge said 600 Iraqi army soldiers had retaken control of the city, but not before the 25 gunmen and police were killed in violence that began Thursday night. The Iraqi army dispatched two companies to Amarah, a city of 750,000, from Basra, the south's largest city.
"They've applied a solution and at the moment it's holding," Burbridge said. "At the moment, it's tense but calm," he said.
Britain had 500 soldiers on standby if called for, Burbridge said, saying British military authorities were "confident that they've (Iraqi security forces) responded as best as they can."
Mahdi Army fighters had stormed three main police stations Friday morning, residents said, planting explosives that flattened the buildings in Amarah, a city just 30 miles from the Iranian border that was under British command until August, when it was returned to Iraqi government control.
About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were patrolling in commandeered police vehicles, witnesses said. Other fighters set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors.
AP Television News footage showed thick, black smoke billowing from behind the barricades of a police station in Amarah. Much of the smoke came from fires set to vehicles that were parked within the compound. Hooded gunmen roamed the streets, some of whom seemed to be directing the others, while a stream of gunshots could be heard in the background.
Some streets were entirely deserted except for the gunmen, but on others children ran around, pointing out the source of gunfire, and a couple of bicyclists stopped to look at the smoke that enveloped the police station.
The events in Amarah — involving a dispute between the Mahdi Army and local security forces believed controlled by the rival Badr Brigade militia — highlight the threat of wider violence between rival Shiite factions, who have entrenched themselves among the majority Shiite population and are blamed for killings of rival Sunnis.
Shiite militia violence, mainly against the country's Sunni minority, has ravaged Iraq since February when a Shiite holy place in Samara was blown up. The violence has been on the increase, but this is the first recent fighting that has pitted Shiites against one another on such a scale.
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, a former Shiite activist, won the top government post last spring thanks in part to the support of al-Sadr, who controls 30 of the 275 seats in the national parliament and five Cabinet posts.
In a sign of al-Sadr's influence, al-Maliki this week ordered the release of one of the young cleric's top lieutenants, Sheik Mazen al-Sa'edi, who was arrested by U.S. troops in Baghdad for alleged links to sectarian death squads.
The fighting in Amarah came just days after al-Maliki met with al-Sadr at the cleric's headquarters in the holy city of Najaf to enlist support for reining in sectarian violence and building political stability.
The timing seemed to indicate al-Sadr and other Mahdi Army commanders did not have full control over individual units, lending weight to the theory that many such militia groups were acting on their own and carrying out local agendas.
Mahdi Army militiamen have long enjoyed a free rein in Amarah, the provincial capital of the southern province of Maysan. Militiamen in Amarah often summon local government officials for meetings at their offices. They roam the city with their weapons, manipulate the local police and set up checkpoints at will.
Since British troops left Amarah in August, residents say the militia has been involved in a series of killings, including slayings of merchants suspected of selling alcohol and women alleged to have engaged in behavior deemed immoral by militiamen.
Fighting broke out Thursday after Qassim al-Tamimi, the provincial head of police intelligence and a leading member of the rival Shiite Badr Brigade militia, was killed by a roadside bomb. In retaliation, his family kidnapped the teenage brother of the Mahdi Army commander in Amarah, Sheik Fadel al-Bahadli, to demand the hand-over of al-Tamimi's killers.
Amarah, a major population center in the resource-rich yet impoverished south, is a traditional center of Shiite defiance to successive Iraqi regimes. Its famed marshlands were drained by former dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1990s in reprisal for the city's role in the Shiite uprising that blazed through the region after the 1991 Gulf War.
The showdown between the Mahdi and Badr militias has the potential to develop into an all-out conflict between the heavily armed groups and their political sponsors, both with large blocs in parliament and backers of al-Maliki's ruling coalition. It also could shatter the unity of Iraq's majority Shiites at a time when an enduring Sunni insurgency shows no signs of abating.
The U.N. refugee agency said at least 914,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, more than a third in response to the sectarian bloodshed this year.
See also
Iraqi Police Control Amara; U.K. Force on Standby (Update2)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ay6.ooB5tcic&refer=home
This was the best I could find.
Cheers.
"This will continue until Sadhr and his top 6 advisor's / henchmen are killed."
I bet heavily armed US and Iraqi units are on the way now.
"Briefly" held Amarah. Does this mean that somebody came into town and soundly kicked their collective butts, and they are scattered back into hiding? Or is this a "negotiation"?
Where is the honor of it all, honest disagreements between peers, that gets brokered by a dispassionate third party, and both sides shake hands and abide by the findings? No, not until somebody gets their ass thoroughly and unmistakenly kicked for sure, and they are lying crying, bleeding and puking on the floor, or dead, that is the only time that "negotiations" are undertaken.
Muslims do not do business by civilized rules. Even with each other.
Will no one rid me of the turbulent priest?
Iraq's govt envoy meets tribal in tense Amara
Sat 21 Oct 2006 11:50:33 BST
AMARA, Iraq, Oct 21 (Reuters) - An envoy of Iraq prime minister on Saturday met tribal leaders in the southern town of Amara in efforts to ease the tension after fierce battles between militia gunmen and police.
National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waeli, sent to Amara on Friday to restore order, said the clashes which left at least 25 killed in two days, were fuelled by tribal divisions.
The clashes between the police and Mehdi Army loyal to fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtda al-Sadr started after the assassination of head of the police intelligence in the town, later police raided some houses and arrested figures loyal to Sadr.
The Mehdi Army then attacked police stations with rocket-propelled grenades and rifle fire. Sadr sent a letter urging for calm, a leader in the Shi'ite militia said. He also sent an envoy to Amara on Friday.
The clashes have tested the Iraqi government's ability to rein in sectarian groups and U.S.-led plans to hand over control to Iraqis. Witnesses said Amara was quite on Saturday morning. Shops were opened.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=KAR138259&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-3
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