BAGHDAD – Rockets fell on the Green Zone and random machine-gun fire rang out yesterday in the southern city of Basra as Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr sought to rein in his militia after a week of battles that claimed about 400 lives.
The peace deal between al-Sadr and Iraqi government forces calmed the violence but left the cleric's Mahdi army intact and Iraq's U.S.-backed prime minister politically battered and humbled within his own Shiite power base.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had promised to crush the militias that have effectively ruled Basra for nearly three years. The U.S. military launched airstrikes in the city to back the Iraqi effort.
But the ferocious response by the Mahdi army, including rocket fire on the U.S.-controlled Green Zone and attacks throughout the Shiite south, caught the government by surprise and sent officials scrambling for a way out of the crisis.
The confrontation enabled al-Sadr to show he remains a powerful force capable of challenging the Iraqi government, the Americans and mainstream Shiite parties that have sought for years to marginalize him. And the outcome cast doubt on President Bush's assessment that the Basra battle was “a defining moment” in the history “of a free Iraq.”
With gunmen again off the streets, a round-the-clock curfew imposed in Baghdad last week was lifted at 6 a.m. yesterday, except in Sadr City and two other Shiite neighborhoods. Streets of the capital buzzed with traffic and commerce.
Several rockets or mortars slammed yesterday into the Green Zone, the nerve center of the U.S. mission in Iraq. But the U.S. Embassy said there were no reports of serious injuries. At least two Americans working for the U.S. government were killed in Green Zone attacks last week.
A U.S. soldier was killed yesterday by a roadside bomb in northeastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said without specifying whether the attack occurred in a Shiite or Sunni area. The military also said a U.S. soldier wounded south of Baghdad on March 23 died Sunday in Germany.
Republican Sen. John McCain, who has linked his presidential campaign to the conduct of the war, said he was “surprised” that al-Maliki had ordered an operation in Basra rather than keeping the focus on fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq in the northern city of Mosul.
Fighting in the south helped make March the deadliest month for Iraqis since last summer, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.
At least 1,247 Iraqis, including civilians and security personnel, had been killed as of yesterday, according to figures compiled from police and U.S. military reports. The figure was nearly double the tally for February and the biggest monthly toll since August, when 1,956 people died violently.
In ordering his militia to stop fighting, al-Sadr also demanded concessions from the Iraqi government, including an end to the “illegal raids and arrests” of his followers and the release of all detainees who have not been convicted of any offenses.
Sadrists in Basra complained that police were still conducting raids in the area last night and said their followers might start carrying weapons again for self-defense.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh welcomed al-Sadr's decision but told reporters yesterday that no political group was above the law. Al-Sadr's supporters believed the security crackdown in Basra was aimed at weakening their movement before provincial elections this fall.
The outcome of the Basra crisis dealt a blow to the credibility of al-Maliki, who flew to the city last week to oversee the crackdown.
“The whole situation is a big farce,” said one Basra resident, who gave his name only as Abu Mohammed. “I think the situation will return to normal again, but the problem will never be solved. Gangs, smugglers and corrupt people will go back to doing what they were doing before.”
U.S. and Iraqi officials insisted the operation was directed at criminals and rogue militiamen – some allegedly linked to Iran – but not against the Sadrist movement, which controls 30 of the 275 seats in the national parliament.
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said that as of Monday, Iraqi forces had killed 210 “criminals” in Basra, arrested 155 others and seized large quantities of rockets and roadside bombs.
