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Sadr militia fights US troops after 13 month peace { September 26 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Monday, September 26, 2005 - Page updated at 12:15 AM
Fighting breaks out with al-Sadr's militia
By Richard Boudreaux
Los Angeles Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Fawzi Salman was asleep on the roof of his house in the midnight heat when he was startled awake by something he had not heard in 13 months: American gunfire in Sadr City.
It had been that long since U.S. troops and black-clad militiamen battled in the alleys of the huge Baghdad slum. Since then, it had become one of the calmest places in a city of daily car bombs, and a multimillion-dollar showcase of the U.S. reconstruction program.
Suddenly, in the first hour of yesterday, the truce and the American bid for stability and goodwill in Sadr City were in jeopardy as U.S. troops clashed anew with al-Mahdi militia fighters loyal to Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Medical officials said three men apparently belonging to the militia and two unarmed females, including an 8-year-old girl, were killed on a day of fighting that claimed at least 26 other lives across Iraq.
Early today, a suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint guarding several government ministries in Baghdad, killing at least six policemen and wounding 13 other people, mostly government employees arriving at work, police said.
The ominous resurgence of violence in Sadr City came on the heels of clashes in Basra last week between British forces and al-Mahdi militiamen and in the run-up to an Oct. 15 referendum on Iraq's proposed new U.S.-backed constitution. The clashes could boost popular support for al-Sadr, a fierce critic of the U.S. presence who is bucking mainstream Shiite support for the charter.
American-led coalition forces that routinely patrol Sadr City said they were drawn into yesterday's fight after unidentified gunmen ambushed an Iraqi army unit. The Iraqi unit had been pursuing three insurgents suspected of working in a kidnapping cell, according to a U.S. military statement, which reported no arrests.
Although Iraqi soldiers and militiamen were involved in the shooting, many Sadr City residents angrily criticized it as an unwarranted American assault on four of their 79 neighborhoods. Some said American troops had raided houses in search of weapons and militia members.
"I was gathered with my friends in the street when all of a sudden we saw American troops invading our neighborhood, shooting in every direction," said Imad Abed Hussein, 23, a merchant who was one of 11 wounded residents taken to Qadissia Hospital.
"The American forces raided our peaceful town trying to detain members of the militia," said Hassan Raad, 18. "Our neighborhood is full of them, but I don't think they took anybody. They only fired randomly and killed innocent people."
Sadr City's 2 million residents were neglected under former President Saddam Hussein. The United States is trying to win friends there by paying for such projects as cleaning up trash and digging wells and by hiring militia members to do the work. But most of the neighborhoods remain blighted, with sewage water spilling into unpaved streets. Frequent power cuts make the tiny brick homes unbearably hot, even at night, when people sleep in the open air.
When the shooting started, Salman, 46, scrambled to awaken his sleeping family and get them down from the roof. "Unfortunately, I was the last one to get inside, and I was hit in the shoulder," he said.
Abed Hadi Daraji, a spokesman for al-Sadr's political movement, accused U.S. forces of trying to provoke conflict in Sadr City and discourage residents from voting. But he added: "We are asking our people to remain quiet."
In other violence yesterday, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed himself and at least five visitors to a Shiite religious shrine in Musayyib, and a bomb planted on an abandoned bicycle exploded among shoppers on a street in Hillah, killing one. Eight people died when mortar shells struck their homes in Samarra. In Baghdad, gunmen held up an armored Finance Ministry convoy, killed two guards, and escaped with $850,000.
Los Angeles Times reporters Caesar Ahmed and Raheem Salman and The Associated Press contributed to this report
Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company
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