Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday ordered his followers to reject Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's call to surrender their arms as clashes with troops raged for a fifth straight day. "Sadr has told us not to surrender our arms except to a state that can throw out the (US) occupation," Haider al-Jabari of the Sadr movement's political bureau told AFP in the holy city of Najaf, home to the cleric's main office.
| Well okay, I guess we can kill a few hundred more of your hard boyz and then ask you again to surrender your arms. |
On Wednesday, Maliki gave a 72-hour deadline to Shiite fighters, mostly Mahdi Army militants loyal to the anti-American cleric, to disarm in the southern city of Basra after launching a crackdown against them a day earlier.
The deadline for surrendering heavy and medium weaponry in return for money expired on Friday. After the militia put up stiff resistance, Maliki extended it until April 8.
| Bad move. Leave the deadline as it was and let everyone know you're happy to pry their heavy weapons from their cold, dead fingers ... |
The crackdown on areas controlled by Sadr's militia has severely strained a freeze of Mahdi Army activities the cleric ordered last August. Since Tuesday, violence has raged across Shiite regions of Iraq, with nearly 260 people killed as Shiite fighters clashed with troops. Most of the casualties were in Sadr City, Basra, the southern city of Nasiriyah and the central cities of Kut and Hilla.
| And now, the reporter segues to other news: |
On Saturday, the clashes spread to other parts of the country. They erupted in the central Shiite city of Karbala where 12 "criminals" were killed, local police chief Raed Jawdat Shakir said, adding that another 25 people were arrested overnight. The death toll from similar clashes between Shiite gunmen and Iraqi and US troops in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army, rose to at least 75, with another 498 people reported wounded.
"Seventy-five people have been killed and 498 wounded in clashes in Sadr City in the last four days," Qassim Mohammed, a spokesman for Baghdad health directorate, told reporters in Sadr City. He accused American forces of "creating obstacles" in transporting victims of the violence to safety.
| I think we need a new spokescritter for the health directorate ... |
Sadr City has been wracked by fierce clashes between security forces and the militiamen since the crackdown began in Basra.
Ahmed, a resident of the slum neighbourhood of some two million people, said the situation was deteriorating. "The hospitals are overflowing with wounded. They can't take any more. Even the medical stores are closed," he said. "There is no electricity, no water or fuel. We are afraid of gunbattles. The main markets are also closed."
| No problem Ahmed, listen carefully to the nice young American and Iraqi soldiers, do as you're asked to do, and it'll be over in a couple days. |
A top Sadr aide in eastern Baghdad, Salman al-Afraiji, told AFP several Iraqi soldiers had come to the cleric's Sadr City office and offered to lay down their own weapons. "We told them they should keep their arms. We gave them a Koran and they went back," he said.
An AFP photographer said US-led coalition warplanes bombed the Al-Baath neighbourhood of northwest Basra early on Saturday, killing at least eight people. Several more people were feared killed, he added.
There were two more strikes later in the day, British Major Tom Holloway said, adding that at least 50 people had been killed in Basra and another 300 wounded since the fighting started.
Clashes also continued on the ground in Basra. "Last night we continued our operations in all areas of Basra," an Iraqi army officer told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that the crackdown will continue until "we have arrested all criminals."
The city is the focus of a turf war between the Mahdi Army and two rival Shiite factions -- the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and the smaller Fadhila party. |