| Iraq rebels want democracy and independence { August 6 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/06/MNGUT83TFJ1.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/06/MNGUT83TFJ1.DTL
Shiite cleric renews call for revolt Fighting in south kills 20 Iraqis -- U.S. copter downed - Jackie Spinner, Washington Post Friday, August 6, 2004
Baghdad -- Rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on his supporters Thursday to rise up anew against U.S.-led security forces, his spokesman announced after a fragile two-month truce in the holy city of Najaf ended with clashes that brought down a U.S. helicopter and killed at least 20 Iraqis and a U.S. soldier.
"This is a revolution against the occupation force until we get independence and democracy," the spokesman, Ahmed al-Shaibany, said in a telephone interview.
Al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, said it had gained control of Najaf and three other southern cities -- Amara, Nasiriya and Basra -- where fighting has spread. Iraqi officials denied that the fighters had taken the cities. There was no independent confirmation.
Al-Sadr's call for an uprising is his first significant test of Iraq's new interim government, which took office June 28, and signals the end to the uneasy peace that had settled over Iraq's long-oppressed Shiite Muslim majority in the southern part of the country.
It wasn't clear whether the call would result in a broad revolt. In April, al-Sadr rallied his supporters to strike against the U.S. occupation, leading to two months of clashes that left hundreds dead. But the battles Thursday produced more anxiety in a country where the volatile security situation has already frayed nerves.
After nightfall Thursday, al-Sadr's aide called for restoring the truces that have kept a relative calm for months.
Al-Sadr "announced that we are committed to the truce and that (U.S.) forces must honor the truce," al-Shaibany told the Associated Press. If U.S. forces do not agree, "then the firing and igniting of the revolution will continue."
Al-Sadr's followers also wounded 15 American troops in four separate attacks in Baghdad, the U.S. command said. Health Ministry officials said fighting in the Sadr City district in Baghdad had left two people dead.
The U.S. military and Iraqi police said the fighting in Najaf had begun when Mahdi Army fighters attacked a police station overnight. The military said Iraqi forces had called on it for help.
"If they want it to be war, let it be," said Ghalib Hashim Jazaeri, the police chief in Najaf. "We have enough men and equipment to defeat them."
"We are inside the city," he said into his radio as gunfire and mortars exploded in the city. "We are chasing them. They left, escaped." The radio crackled.
Each side blamed the other for breaking a cease-fire negotiated in June to end the two-month uprising.
"They broke the truce," Jazaeri said. "They want to occupy the city. We cannot let them do that. If they attack us, we will defend ourselves."
Mahdi Army fighters in the streets of Najaf shot off grenades and set up roadblocks with mortar tubes and tires. A voice over a loudspeaker coming from the Imam Ali Shrine urged residents to take up arms to defend the city.
Al-Shaibany denied that al-Sadr's followers had started the fight. He said the Iraqi police and National Guard and U.S. forces had broken the agreement that had restricted U.S.-led forces from entering parts of the city, including areas near sacred sites.
Coalition forces surrounded the city at about 2 p.m. Thursday, he said. "We knew they wanted to invade it," he said. "We had and have to defend the holy city. We didn't want to violate the truce, and we are still committed to it. But they don't respect the word they gave. They want it to be war."
During the fighting, insurgents attacked a U.S. military convoy, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding five others, the U.S. military said. A UH-1 helicopter was hit by ground fire and forced to make an emergency landing, the military said. The injured crew was evacuated to safety.
The fighting also slightly damaged the dome of the Ali shrine in the old city at Najaf's center, witnesses said. The shrine -- reputed to hold the remains of Imam Ali, the most hallowed saint in Shiite Islam -- was slightly damaged twice during fighting in May, though U.S. force have tried to avoid damaging shrines for fear of enraging Iraq's Shiite majority.
The Najaf violence killed seven militants and wounded 34 others, who have been detained, the U.S. military said. Nine civilians were also killed and 34 injured, including four policemen, said Hussein Hadi, an official at al-Hakeem hospital in Najaf.
In Basra, British soldiers engaged in a gun battle with the Mahdi Army after they were attacked by small arms fire. A British military spokeswoman said two militiamen had been killed. The militia had threatened to attack British forces in Basra if they did not release four detained militants.
In the neighboring city of Kufa, the Mahdi Army briefly took over a police station before being forced out by Iraqi police and guardsmen, the U.S. military said.
In Amara, to the north of Basra, an appeal for Mahdi Army members to mobilize rang out through mosque loudspeakers. Militants took to the streets, shooting at government buildings and launching mortars at British troops and a British base, said Maj. Ian Clooney, a British military spokesman. There were no British casualties and no reports of Iraqi casualties, he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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