Iraq’s Sadr criticizes rival after Shi’ite fighting

By Khaled Farhan

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
demanded on Thursday that a rival Islamist leader condemn his
own followers over deadly Shi’ite Muslim infighting that rocked
the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf.

Clashes broke out on Wednesday night between Sadr’s armed
followers and a crowd who burned down his offices in Najaf,
killing eight people.

That sparked violence in Baghdad and Shi’ite towns across
southern Iraq, as members of the pro-Sadr Mehdi Army militia
attacked offices of the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution (SCIRI) and its ‘Badr’ militia. SCIRI is headed by
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a powerful Shi’ite cleric in government.

“I demand that brother Abdul Aziz al-Hakim make an official
announcement condemning the aggression by his representatives
and some extremists,” Sadr told a news conference in the city,
where police and troops spread out to keep the peace.

“I call upon the Mehdi Army to be calm because anything
else will not be in the Iraqi people’s interests,” he said,
thanking Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari for condemning the
attack.

Some of his followers were in tears as they inspected
Sadr’s burnt-out headquarters a short distance from the shrine
of Ali, the cousin of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed who is revered
by Iraq’s majority Shi’ite Muslims.

Only party paperchains hanging from the ceiling escaped the
flames. The office saw celebrations earlier this week when it
was reopened a year after the Mehdi Army staged an uprising
against U.S. forces then controlling the town.

Sadr announced three days mourning over the death of four
of his followers and the wounding of 20 in the fighting.

Accounts differed over how Wednesday’s violence began. Sadr
supporters say a crowd including members of the Badr group
stormed the office. Badr movement head Hadi al-Ameri has denied
any involvement by the militia, which works with the police.

Witnesses said two rival crowds, one of Sadr supporters and
another of Najafi rivals of Sadr, began throwing stones at each
other as police stood by.

“What happened made all of us in the city sad. We don’t
want any more bloodletting in what is supposed to be a city of
peace,” said shopkeeper Hamoudi Said.

SHI’ITE INFIGHTING

Najaf has been spared most of the violence rocking Baghdad
and the center of Iraq where Sunni insurgents are fighting the
government and its U.S. backers. But it has not been immune to
conflict between Shi’ite factions jockeying for power in the
aftermath of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In an example of how fickle Shi’ite politics can be, Sadr
later described the Badr movement as “innocents before God”
after Shi’ite leaders had rallied to calm the situation.

Najaf is home to Sadr, Hakim and his supporters, and Grand
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a reclusive figure considered Iraq’s
most influential Shi’ite cleric. Sadr’s powerbase is thought to
be in the poor Baghdad district known as Sadr City.

The son of a revered cleric widely believed to have been
killed by Saddam Hussein’s agents in 1999, Sadr has followed a
different path from his Shi’ite peers by refusing a role in
government while U.S. troops remain in the country. But three
members of the cabinet are Sadr supporters.

At a national level, Shi’ite and Kurdish politicians who
dominate government have prepared a draft constitution which
minority Sunni Arabs reject, saying it would create a federal
state that would lead to the break-up of Iraq.

Sadr also opposes the federalism clauses, while most other
Shi’ite groups like SCIRI support it. “Federalism in itself is
fine, but it’s not a good idea at this present time because
there is an occupation,” Sadr said on Thursday.