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Shia clash dents Iraq charter hopes
Tension prevailed across Iraq as supporters of Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr attacked offices of a rival Shia group in several cities after deadly clashes in Najaf.
The fresh outbreak on Thursday of inter-Shia violence, on top of a bloody show of force by fighters on Baghdad's streets on Wednesday, has cast clouds on Iraq's constitutional process. A final draft of the charter is due to be put before parliament for approval on Thursday.
The fresh outbreak on Thursday of inter-Shia violence, on top of a bloody show of force by fighters on Baghdad's streets on Wednesday, has cast clouds on Iraq's constitutional process. A final draft of the charter is due to be put before parliament for approval on Thursday.
One man was killed and 13 wounded in overnight clashes between al-Sadr supporters and members of the rival Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) in the southern town of Nasiriya, 375km southeast of Baghdad.
By daybreak on Thursday, residents of several Shia southern cities reported burned out political offices; in Amara, near Basra, a policeman was killed in dawn clashes with al-Mahdi Army fighters who had occupied the local premises of the rival Badr organisation overnight, a local government official said.
Al-Sadr, a strident nationalist whose followers deride rival Shia leaders for their time in exile in Iran, has joined Sunni Arab leaders in denouncing the draft constitution as a recipe for the break up of the state.
Read More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A888F71A-0325-4A87-9DBE-FFD53981A17E.htm
The clashes spread after radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr's office in Najaf was attacked and burnt down.
Mr Sadr's supporters blamed the armed militia of the leading Shia political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri).
BBC Baghdad correspondent Mike Woodridge says it is not clear what lies behind the violence.
Mr Sadr has sided with Sunni leaders in opposing the federalist tone of the draft constitution, warning that this could lead to the break-up of Iraq.
Read More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4182370.stm
Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has appealed for calm and an end to clashes between rival Shia factions.
On Wednesday, seven people died in an attack on Mr Sadr's office in Najaf, leading to unrest in other cities.
BBC Baghdad correspondent Mike Woodridge says it is not clear what lies behind the violence.
Mr Sadr has sided with Sunni leaders in opposing the federalist tone of the draft constitution, warning that this could lead to the break-up of Iraq.
The violence has added to the tensions as political leaders in Iraq are under pressure to agree the new constitution before a deadline on Thursday night.
Mr Sadr's supporters blamed the clashes on a rival pro-government Badr militia.
A representative of the Badr militia, loyal to the largest Shia party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) led by Abdul Aziz Hakim, condemned the Najaf attack of Mr Sadr's offices, which was burned down in the clashes.
In a televised address late on Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, also a Shia, condemned the attack.
'High alert'
Mr Sadr's followers staged two revolts against US troops in 2004.
His office in Najaf had been closed down since his group agreed to a cease-fire last year, but reports say Mr Sadr was attempting to reopen it.
In response to the attack on the office, Mr Sadr's followers, known as the Mehdi Army, mobilised supporters elsewhere in Iraq, including Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a radical stronghold in the capital.
A spokesman for the Mehdi Army said the militia had moved to a state of "high alert" after the violence.
A wave of reprisals were reported against Badr targets in Baghdad and in other Shia towns.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4183334.stm
By daybreak on Thursday, residents of several Shia southern cities reported burned out political offices; in Amara, near Basra, a policeman was killed in dawn clashes with al-Mahdi Army fighters who had occupied the local premises of the rival Badr organisation overnight, a local government official said.
Al-Sadr, a strident nationalist whose followers deride rival Shia leaders for their time in exile in Iran, has joined Sunni Arab leaders in denouncing the draft constitution as a recipe for the break up of the state.
Read More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A888F71A-0325-4A87-9DBE-FFD53981A17E.htm
The clashes spread after radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr's office in Najaf was attacked and burnt down.
Mr Sadr's supporters blamed the armed militia of the leading Shia political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri).
BBC Baghdad correspondent Mike Woodridge says it is not clear what lies behind the violence.
Mr Sadr has sided with Sunni leaders in opposing the federalist tone of the draft constitution, warning that this could lead to the break-up of Iraq.
Read More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4182370.stm
Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr has appealed for calm and an end to clashes between rival Shia factions.
On Wednesday, seven people died in an attack on Mr Sadr's office in Najaf, leading to unrest in other cities.
BBC Baghdad correspondent Mike Woodridge says it is not clear what lies behind the violence.
Mr Sadr has sided with Sunni leaders in opposing the federalist tone of the draft constitution, warning that this could lead to the break-up of Iraq.
The violence has added to the tensions as political leaders in Iraq are under pressure to agree the new constitution before a deadline on Thursday night.
Mr Sadr's supporters blamed the clashes on a rival pro-government Badr militia.
A representative of the Badr militia, loyal to the largest Shia party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) led by Abdul Aziz Hakim, condemned the Najaf attack of Mr Sadr's offices, which was burned down in the clashes.
In a televised address late on Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, also a Shia, condemned the attack.
'High alert'
Mr Sadr's followers staged two revolts against US troops in 2004.
His office in Najaf had been closed down since his group agreed to a cease-fire last year, but reports say Mr Sadr was attempting to reopen it.
In response to the attack on the office, Mr Sadr's followers, known as the Mehdi Army, mobilised supporters elsewhere in Iraq, including Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a radical stronghold in the capital.
A spokesman for the Mehdi Army said the militia had moved to a state of "high alert" after the violence.
A wave of reprisals were reported against Badr targets in Baghdad and in other Shia towns.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4183334.stm
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"I call upon all the believers to save the blood of the Muslims and to return to their homes," Sadr told reporters at his home in the southern Shiite holy city of Najaf.
The clashes broke out Wednesday when Sadr's offices in Najaf were attacked and burned by rival groups. Some 3,000 followers surrounded Sadr's house as he spoke, many of them armed with grenade-launchers and automatic rifles, and vowing to defend him.
The southern city of Basra was calmer Thursday following Sadr's appeal, after street battles with mortars, grenade-launchers and automatic rifles a day earlier between Sadr's followers and those of the Badr organization. At least one policeman and one Sadr follower were reported killed there in fighting early Wednesday; there was no figure on casualties later in the day.
The fighting, which quickly spread to other urban centers in south-central Iraq, underscored the deep rifts within the Shiite community -- 60 percent of the population -- which won most seats in parliament in the Jan. 30 elections that were boycotted by Sunni Muslims.
While militias are illegal under Iraq's interim constitution, Shiite and Kurdish factions still command thousands of fighters loyal to them above all others.
The violence is tinged by disputes over Iraq's new draft constitution. Sadr's followers and most Sunnis largely oppose the draft's provisions for the establishment of federal states in Iraq, saying it will lead to the breakup of the country.
"I will not forget this attack on the office . . . but Iraq is passing through a critical and difficult period that requires unity," Sadr said, in remarks quoted by news agencies.
Sadr also called on Abdul-Aziz Hakim, leader of the rival Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, now the leading party in Iraq's Shiite-led interim government, to condemn "what his followers have done."
The fighting chiefly involves Sadr's forces and the Supreme Council's military wing, the Badr organization.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari appeared on state TV shortly after midnight to condemn the violence, which comes as Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions try for a third time to reach accord on Iraq's draft constitution by a new deadline, Thursday.
"Peace must reign," said Jafari, a member of another Shiite party leading the government. "This language of violence cannot be permitted in the new Iraq."
In Baqubah, Sadr's black-clad forces fought with those of the Supreme Council on Thursday, said Ahmed Karim, spokesman for the joint coordination center for Iraqi and U.S. forces there.
Baqubah police officers said four Sadr fighters were killed in clashes among Sadr's followers and those of the Iraqi army, police and U.S. forces.
American military spokesmen in Baghdad said they had no immediate information.
Karim said U.S. helicopters were patrolling over the city, and American forces had made an unspecified number of arrests. Baqubah's people took shelter inside their homes. Some mosques in the city blared messages calling on Sadr's forces "to continue fighting those who want to divide Iraq," Karim said.
Eight miles north of Baqubah, gunmen opened fire on five men believed to be fighters of the Supreme Council's Badr organization, killing five of them, Karim claimed. At least seven people died in Wednesday's clashes.
In other developments, wire services reported that six Iraqi civilians were killed and 15 wounded on Thursday when gunmen burst into a popular cafe in the small town of Abu Sayda, about 37 miles north of Baghdad.
Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer reported from Baghdad.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/25/AR2005082500294.html
Following the appeal by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leaders of the country's political factions met in the Green Zone to try to hammer out an agreement on the draft constitution on the final day of an extension granted Monday night by parliament after Sunni Arabs blocked a vote on the accord accepted by Shiite and Kurdish negotiators
"I call upon all believers to spare the blood of the Muslims and to return to their homes," al-Sadr told reporters in his home in Najaf. "I will not forget this attack on the office ... but Iraq is passing through a critical and difficult period that requires unity."
He demanded that Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the rival Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, to condemn "what his followers have done." SCIRI has denied any role in the attack on al-Sadr's office.
"I urge the believers not to attack innocent civilians and not to fall for Americans plots that aim to divide us," al-Sadr said. "We are passing through a critical period and a political process."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/25/iraq/main795254.shtml
Thursday, August 25, 2005
At Least 34 Dead, Dozens WoundedGuerilla Platoon Attacks Police in Baghdad
Bloody Shiite on Shiite Clashes in the South
Forty guerrillas in Baghdad launched a coordinated attack on police that included suicide bombings, killing 15 and wounding 56. It is always worrisome when you see a whole platoon of guerrillas operating openly in daylight in the capital. It appears that the guerrillas were targeting a visiting high level police commando from Samarra, but missed him.
In Samarra, guerrillas blew up the house of a police commando and executed one of his relatives. I'd guess this is the guy who was visiting Baghdad, and who was targeted there. I don't know exactly what a "police commando" is, but I suspect he is actually a member of one of the elite Interior Ministry security forces, which have recruited especially from the Badr Corps, a Shiite militia.
In Baquba, guerrillas attacked three sites and killed 8.
As if the problems with the Sunni guerrilla movement weren't serious enough, fighting broke out in six southern cities on Wednesday between followers of Muqtada al-Sadr and those of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
In Najaf, Sadrists attempted to reestablish a political office in the city, from which they were expelled by the US Marines last August. Angry crowds of Najafis gathered and attacked the infiltrating Sadrists. The crowd may have included Badr Corps fighters, the paramilitary of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a rival Shiite party. Sadrists are claiming that 8 persons were killed inside the new offices. Another report said that the building had been burned down. Dozens of persons suffered injuries.
Muqtada is threatening to pull the 20 members of parliament who are loyal to him from the national assembly. He is also threatening violence.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A888F71A-0325-4A87-9DBE-FFD53981A17E.htm">In Nasiriyah to the south, clashes between Sadrists and SCIRI left one person dead and 13 wounded.
In Amara, Sadrists occupied the SCIRI offices. When the police came to expel them, they clashed, and a policeman was killed.
There was also Sadrist/SCIRI violence in Basra, Hilla, Samawa and Diwaniyah.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari condemned the violence in Najaf and called for an end to the politics of the gun. He said that the attack on the Sadr offices was "unacceptable" and deplored violence in the holy city of Najaf. Al-Jazeerah says he is sending vice-premier Ahmad Chalabi to Najaf to calm the situation. Chalabi has a good relationship with Sadr and has a long working relationship with SCIRI from expatriate days when they were trying to overthrow Saddam.
Bayan Jabr, the Interior Minister, declared a curfew in Najaf and said he was sending security forces. But he is SCIRI and his intervention will be seen as supporting the Badr Corps against the Sadrists.
posted by Juan @ 8/25/2005 06:19:00 AM
At least five people died and 10 others were wounded in fighting Wednesday between followers of al-Sadr and forces associated with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Dr. Mohammed Abbas al-Fetlawi, head of the Najaf health system, confirmed the casualties.
"I call upon all the believers to save the blood of the Muslims and to return to their homes," al-Sadr said at a news conference. He called on al-Hakim to do the same.
"I demand that brother Abdul Aziz al-Hakim make an official announcement condemning the aggression by his representatives and some extremists."
A short time later, a SCIRI spokesman also asked for an end to the violence, saying it did not benefit Iraq.
Al-Sadr and his backers are among a minority of Shiites who oppose an Iraqi constitution that would include a decentralized Iraqi government with autonomous regions -- or federalism. Sunni Arabs also oppose this plan.
Al-Hakim supports an autonomous region in the south for Shiite Arabs.
The violence prompted Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, in a televised address Wednesday, to call for calm, saying fighting should not occur between Iraqis, but against enemies of Iraq.
Read More
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/25/shiite.violence/