Sadrists accuse Iraqi govt. of targeting movement

Followers of Moqtada al-Sadr accused the government on June 21 of targeting their political movement as a joint US-Iraqi operation arrested 20 policemen linked to the Shia cleric. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, had promised not to arrest al-Sadr's followers who were not involved in criminal activity. During a press conference in Baghdad, Sadrist lawmakers noted that they had agreed to support the Amarah crackdown–Operation Promise of Peace–because the government said it was aimed at restoring law and order. But the arrest on June 18 of the city's Sadrist mayor Rafia Abdul-Jabbar by US-backed Iraqi troops raised tempers among followers of al-Sadr, who has led a series of armed uprisings against US-led coalition and Iraqi forces since 2004. Amara, a city of 350,000 people, has huge numbers of people living in abject poverty and has long served as a key center of support of al-Sadr's movement. "What is happening is that this security operation was transformed from a security offensive to a political offensive," Sadrist lawmaker Ameerah al-Etabi said. "Security forces have targeted persons related to the Sadrist movement... without any charge other than belonging to al-Sadr movement." She criticized government forces for tearing down pictures of the young cleric and his late father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, a major Shiite figure believed assassinated by Saddam Hussein's agents. "We demand of the prime minister that the security operation be more professional and neutral and that it does not target a specific party," al-Etabi said. Al-Sadr's followers believe the crackdowns are aimed at weakening their movement before provincial elections this fall.