Region | Iraq
Iraq truce in jeopardy, says Al Sadr
Supporters of radical cleric Moqtada Al Sadr warned the Iraqi government on Saturday that it was jeopardising a fragile truce, accusing security forces of attacking worshippers loyal to him in Baghdad and Basra.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:11 May 25, 2008
- US military helicopters take off from a joint US-Iraqi military security station east of of Baghdad.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Baghdad: Supporters of radical cleric Moqtada Al Sadr warned the Iraqi government on Saturday that it was jeopardising a fragile truce, accusing security forces of attacking worshippers loyal to him in Baghdad and Basra.
Iraqi security forces fired shots to disperse worshippers in the port city of Basra during prayers on Friday and seized hundreds of Al Sadr supporters in southwestern Baghdad at about the same time.
Officials in Al Sadr's political movement, one of the biggest blocs in parliament, said on Saturday that police had targeted a mosque in Baghdad's Amil district, arresting 400 worshippers inside and outside the building during Friday prayers. The mosque is also Al Sadr's office in the area.
Sadrists in Basra said one person was killed and five wounded when Iraqi troops opened fire to prevent worshippers from gathering in a square.
Police said the soldiers had fired shots into the air to break up an illegal gathering and that six had been wounded.
New escalation
"We consider this a new page in the targeting of Sadrists by the Iraqi government and the US forces," Salah Al Ubaidi, spokesman for Al Sadr, said in Najaf. "This aggression on our Friday prayers is a new escalation which could have grave consequences for the future."
Sadrists said the government was violating recently agreed peace deals to end weeks of fighting between Al Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and US and Iraqi forces in which hundreds have died.
The truces negotiated in Basra and Baghdad have largely held and are partly credited by US forces for near record-low levels of violence countrywide in the past two weeks.
They allowed some 10,000 Iraqi troops backed by tanks to enter Sadr City, Al Sadr's main stronghold in Baghdad, unopposed this week, to stamp the government's authority over an area largely outside its control since coming to power in 2006.
Sadrists, former allies of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki who pulled out of his government last year, held a news conference yesterday to protest against the security force action and also met Defence Minister Abdul Qader Jassem in Baghdad.
A Defence Ministry spokesman and Al Sadr officials said the minister had promised to ensure troops respected Friday prayers.
"We have seen a serious breach we didn't witness even under the Baathist dictator," Sadrist lawmaker Hassan Al Rubaie told the news conference, referring to Saddam Hussain,
An Interior Ministry official defended Friday's raid in Baghdad, saying it had targeted Mahdi Army militiamen and that machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades had been seized. He said hundreds were arrested but had no exact figure.
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