Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Maliki Goes On Attack Against Al Sadr Today

Al-Maliki’s comments came after two days of heavy fighting between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi security forces in the city of Samawah, 370 kilometers (230 miles) southeast of Baghdad that police said killed at least one policeman and four militiamen.

AGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Saturday that the movement of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has been infiltrated by Baathists and gangs in one of his harshest criticism of the group that helped him come to power.

Al-Maliki demanded Sadrist leaders take “decisive and clear” action to ensure they are not blamed for acts of violence carried out in their group’s name.

Despite being strong allies in the past, tension has been rising between al-Maliki and the Sadrists recently and culminated in April when six ministers loyal to al-Sadr quit the Cabinet to protest what al-Sadr said was the government’s incompetence and refusal to call for a U.S. troop withdrawal timeline.

Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia was blamed for much of the sectarian violence that has killed thousands of Iraqis in the past two years, and U.S. troops have been launching raids against the militia which the Americans accuse of having links with Iran.

“We hear the statements of officials in the Sadrist movement in which they say that they are against the use of weapons and condemn those who carry arms. This puts us in front of a fact that we should courageously face,” al-Maliki said, according to a statement from his office.

“These are people who have joined the Sadrist movement to take it as a cover and they are Saddamists, Baathists and gangs for theft and looting. They are taking advantage of the name,” al-Maliki said after a meeting with President Jalal Talabani.

Al-Maliki called “the leaders of the Sadrist Movement to take decisive and clear decisions so that they don’t bear responsibility for those who use the name (of the organization) for killings and acts of terrorism.”

The Baath party, which ruled Iraq under ousted leader Saddam Hussein, was mainly made up of Sunni Muslims but there were many prominent Shiite figures in it, including in the military.

Al-Maliki’s comments came after two days of heavy fighting between the Mahdi Army and Iraqi security forces in the city of Samawah, 370 kilometers (230 miles) southeast of Baghdad that police said killed at least one policeman and four militiamen.

In the southern city of Basra, Mahdi Army militiamen clashed with British troops overnight, security officials in the city said Saturday. The British military said its troops were attacked with roadside bombs and gunfire in the city during a nighttime arrest raid,killing one British soldier and wounding three. The military statement did not specify whether the attackers were Mahdi Army.

On Tuesday, al-Maliki warned gunmen to stop firing rockets and mortar rounds into Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, saying the tactic is harming Iraqi civilians. The area is where the U.S. Embassy as well as Iraqi government and parliament offices are located.

Mahdi Army militiamen are believed to be doing much of the firing at the Green Zone, along with Sunni insurgents.

Al-Maliki said that a new political coalition will be announced soon and its main role will be to activate the political process.

There have been talks in recent weeks about forming a Shiite-Kurdish coalition that would sideline al-Sadr’s movement.

So far, the talks have included Iraq’s two largest Shiite parties — al-Maliki’s Dawa Party and the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq — and the two main Kurdish parties, Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country’s largest Sunni Arab group, has been approached to join the bloc, along with independent Shiite legislators.

Talabani told reporters Saturday that “we have made major steps forward to form the front of the moderates and four groups have agreed on the main principles and we have hopes that the Iraqi Islamic Party will join.”

“This front is not a monopoly and any group can join. It is not against any side,” he said.

(AP)