Civilian casualties mount as US/Iraqi forces provoke Sadr

Civilian casualties mounted on Apr. 23 as fighting between Shiite gunmen and US and Iraqi troops spread to Baghdad's outskirts. Clashes that have occurred daily since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched a crackdown against militias on Mar. 25 have taken a heavy toll on civilians, although the US military insists it takes all possible precautions to avoid hurting innocent Iraqis. At least 315 people have been killed in Sadr City alone in the past month, according to an Interior Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information. The official said no breakdown was available for the number of militiamen, civilians and Iraqi security forces. But an Associated Press count shows at least 200 of those killed have been civilians. The fighting, which began late last month, has put a severe strain on a nearly eight-month-old cease-fire called by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Since the joint US-Iraqi offensive, Sadr has more than once appealed for calm and a halt to hostilities against his followers. But Maliki and the US have ignored his pleas, instead opting for more war. In return, Sadr has threatened to unleash his Mahdi Army militia of some 60,000 members in an "open war" if the government crackdown persists. Iraqi government forces, with US and British support, have moved into the Mahdi Army stronghold in Basra and have surrounded its main bastion in Baghdad. The Iraqi army, supported by US air strikes and British artillery, was able to advance into Basra against little resistance while there is still heavy fighting around Sadr City, a vast impoverished quarter of Baghdad in which some two million people are living. "I'm giving the last warning and the last word to the Iraqi government," said Sadr. "Either it comes to its senses and takes the path of peace... or it will be [seen as] the same as the previous government [of Saddam Hussein]." The Sadrists see the attack on them as orchestrated by the Badr Organization, the powerful Shia militia which is allied to the government and many of whose men have joined the Iraqi army and security services. "If they don't come to their senses and curb the infiltrated militias, we will declare an open war until liberation," Sadr said. Sadr has tried for the past four years to avoid an open military confrontation with Iraqi government forces when backed by United States firepower. In Basra, the Mahdi Army has been able to hold off the Iraqi army in gun battles but has then retreated. But there is no sign so far of the militia being eliminated and it could probably launch devastating counter attacks in the slum districts where its supporters live. Sadr called a six-month ceasefire last August, renewed it in February and called his militiamen off the streets when they seemed to be winning during fighting at the end of March. The US has long encouraged the Iraqi government to crush the Sadrists but seems to have been caught by surprise by current events in which the US finds itself fighting a war on two fronts: one against the Sunni Arabs, which it has waged since 2003, and now a second, which is just beginning, against the Shia. In addition, the US military has constructed a concrete wall through Sadr City. The wall–a concrete barrier of varying height up to about 12 feet–is being built along a main street dividing the southern portion of Sadr City from the northern, where al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fighters are concentrated. Hazim al-Araji, a senior aide to al-Sadr in Baghdad, said the wall would turn "the residents into prisoners and the city into a big jail. All Sadr City residents reject this kind of siege on their city." A full-blown uprising by Sadr's Mahdi Army militia would be a major setback to the security improvements in Iraq over the past year, credited largely to his cease-fire order last summer. The Mahdi Army, which waged two bloody rebellions against US troops in 2004, has shown in the past how quickly it can gather thousands of fighters. "Do you want a third uprising?" Sadr asked in his latest ultimatum for peace. Maliki had demanded that Sadr dismantle the Mahdi Army militia as a condition of being permitted to participate in provincial elections in the fall, a very unlikely scenario for a large movement whose members have comprised a large faction of Iraq's parliament. Sadr repeatedly urged his followers not to fight back, calling the offensive an attempt to weaken a rival Shiite party before the elections. His aides have accused his chief political foes -- Maliki's Dawa party and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq -- of human rights abuses against Sadrists. "The government is fighting them, shedding their blood, taking their women as hostages and imprisoning their families," Sadr said in his latest statement. "What mistake have the followers made to escape the injustice of Saddam only to fall under the yoke of assassinations?" "This is the very last threat," said Salah al-Obaidi, a top aide to Sadr.