Attack on Iraqi City Shows Militia’s Power

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: October 20, 2006

BAGHDAD, Oct. 20 — Hundreds of militiamen linked to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr battled local police and members of a rival Shiite militia in the southeastern city of Amara today, destroying police stations and seizing control of entire neighborhoods, in apparent retaliation for the arrest of one of their fighters.

Local tribal and political leaders and representatives from the Baghdad offices of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki negotiated all day in an effort to stem the fighting.

The gunmen from Mr. Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, eventually withdrew from their positions and ceded control of the city to an Iraqi Army batallion sent from Basra. The negotiations continued late into the evening.

British forces, who occupied the city for two years before turning it over to Iraqi control in August, did not intervene to stop the bloodshed in Amara, apparently wanting to give Iraqi officials time to resolve the dispute on their own. British military officials said that a quick-reaction force was standing by outside Amara in case the Iraqis’ efforts failed.

The stunning and defiant display of militia strength underscored the weaknesses of the Iraqi security forces and the potency of the Mahdi Army, which has been able to operate virtually unchecked in Iraq. The Mahdi Army is widely accused of propelling the cycle of sectarian violence that threatens to plunge the country into all-out civil war.

Today’s clashes, which pitted Mr. Sadr’s fighters against members of a rival Shiite faction, the Badr Organization, also showed the deep fissures in the country’s Shiite leadership, and cast doubt on the ability of the ruling Shiite coalition to hold itself together.

The stability of Mr. Maliki’s government depends on a tenuous peace between Mr. Sadr, who controls one of the largest voting blocs in parliament, and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who leads the Badr militia and the country’s largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. A generations-long feud between their families has carried over into a personal and political rivalry between the men, and their militias have periodically clashed.

A violent break between them would severely complicate the efforts of Iraqi and American officials to quell the soaring violence in Iraq.

In comparison with the west and north of the country, where a fierce Sunni Arab-led insurgency has tormented American and Iraqi troops and where Sunni and Shiite death squads have engaged in vicious cycle of retributive violence, the predominantly Shiite south has been fairly peaceful. But a disintegration of the unstable pact between Mahdi Army and Badr fighters could draw American attention away from other trouble areas and compel the British military to return to areas they have turned over to the Iraqis.

The American military command acknowledged this week that it was considering an overhaul of its latest security plan for Baghdad, where three months of intensive American-led sweeps had failed to curb violence by Sunni Arab-led insurgents and Shiite and Sunni militias.

According to Sheik Abdul Kareem al-Muhamadawi, Amara’s most prominent political leader, the latest dispute between the Shiite militias began after Qassim al-Tamimi, the chief of investigations for the provincial police force and a member of the Badr Organization, was killed in a bombing. Badr fighters blamed the Mahdi Army for the killing.

The police then arrested the brother of the local Mahdi Army commander, officials said, though it was unclear whether the arrest was related to the bombing.

Mahdi fighters responded with the assault on the city, which began Thursday afternoon.

By this morning, victorious Mahdi fighters, clad in black and carrying Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, were patrolling the city on foot and in commandeered police vehicles and were setting up roadblocks, local leaders and residents said. At least 8 people were killed in the clashes, and 75 were wounded, according to health officials in Amara.

“There is no state in the city right now,” Sheik al-Muhamadawi said by telephone early this afternoon. “Policemen tried to protect the stations, but what can they do? They do not have enough weapons and ammunition compared with the militia, which has all kinds of weapons.”

Amara is the capital of Maysan province, a region of farmland and marshes near the Iranian border that has been a chokepoint for munitions and people entering Iraq from Iran.

Political control has been fiercely contested by followers of Mr. Hakim and Mr. Sadr. Mr. Sadr’s allies dominate the 42-member provincial council, and the governor is a former Mahdi Army commander. But the police chief is a former Badr Organization member, and many of his policemen pledge loyalty to that militia.

The Shiite militias have presented Mr. Maliki with perhaps the greatest conundrum of his administration. American officials have pressed him hard to disarm the militias and rid the state security forces of their influence. Yet Mr. Maliki has hesitated to move against them, particularly the Mahdi Army and Badr Organization, for fear of alienating fundamentalist Shiite leaders inside his fractious coalition.

Mr. Sadr’s considerable leverage was apparent earlier this week, when Mr. Maliki ordered the release of one of Mr. Sadr’s senior aides. The aide had been arrested a day earlier by American troops on suspicion of participating in kidnappings and killings.

According to Western intelligence officials, though, Mr. Sadr appears to have lost control of part of his militia, which has splintered off into freelance death squads. In fact, it remained unclear whether he had approved the Amara uprising before it began.

Witnesses said a message from Mr. Sadr was blared over loudspeakers from vehicles in Amara this afternoon, calling on gunmen to lay down their weapons. The order was widely disregarded.

Khalid al-Ansary, Qais Mizher and Abdul Razzaq al-Saiedi contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Christine Hauser from New York.