Maqtada al-Sadr: A respite from attacks on Americans to

retool his military wing.

L'Orient Le Jour, Lebanon

Moqtada Sadr Orders Militia to

Suspend Attacks on Americans

"The freeze means that the Mahdi Army will stop taking military action against the occupiers and all other groups. … the goal is to reorganize the Mahdi Army, not dismantle it. It's a matter of making an effort to eliminate undisciplined groups from the ranks of the movement."

-- Ahmad al-Shaïbani, Moqtada al-Sadr's Spokeman

Translated By Elise Nussbaum

August 30, 2007

Lebanon - L'Orient Le Jour - Home Page (French)

The young radical Shiite chief, Moqtada al-Sadr, ordered his militiamen yesterday to suspend their attacks against Americans in Iraq, after his forces were blamed for bloody clashes at Kerbala, the Holy City where Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki traveled yesterday to declare a curfew.

Moqtada Sadr committed himself to purging the armed section of his movement, the Mahdi Army, which is comprised of undisciplined groups that escape his authority and undermine the credibility of his movement - the most popular in Iraq's majority Shiite community.

This initiative, whose success must be measured by the results, comes shortly after confrontations between police and armed men that resulted in at least 52 killed and over 300 wounded in Kerbala, 65 miles south of Baghdad. The clashes provoked panic and indignation in a crowd of pilgrims that had come to joyfully celebrate the anniversary of the 9th-century birth of their last imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi .

Witnesses and press correspondents say that the militiamen that confronted police belonged to Sadr's movement, an accusation refuted by the Mahdi Army, which is openly opposed to the American occupation and is boycotting the current Iraqi government. Nevertheless, in a communiqué published yesterday at Najaf, the seat of the highest religious authority for Iraq's Shiites (the Hawza), Moqtada Sadr announced that his group's activities would be suspended for six months and that it would be restructured. Afterwards, Sadr's spokesman in Najaf, Ahmad al-Shaïbani, declared that, "the freeze in activities means that the Mahdi Army will stop taking military action against the occupiers and all other groups." Al-Shaïbani added that "the goal is to reorganize the Mahdi Army, not dismantle it. It's a matter of making an effort to eliminate undisciplined groups from the ranks of the movement."

At the same time, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, himself a Shiite, has personally taken in hand the restoration of order in Kerbala.

Arriving in a city traumatized by Tuesday's incidents, he announced a complete curfew and assured people that "the situation is now under control." Images on television showed the city completely deserted. "The Prime Minister is supervising the operations," indicated his national security counselor, Mouwafaq al-Rubaie, on the public channel Iraqiya. "We admit there was a failure of the security services," added Mr. Rubaie, announcing that Mr. Maliki had proceeded to dismiss local persons in charge.

The Prime Minister accused people "nostalgic" for Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime of having instigated the disturbances. But Hamid Gannoush, a local official with the Mahdi Army, was arrested after being suspected of taking part in the confrontations, according to a source in the security services.

Mr. Maliki announced a total prohibition on car and pedestrian traffic beginning yesterday, and to continue for an indefinite period, with fresh military reinforcements set to arrive Tuesday to restore calm.

For months, groups tied to the Mahdi Army have organized successive attacks targeting the Sunni community, undermining Sadr's authority and the credibility of his organization. Different Shiite groups in Iraq are in a fierce competition for control of the community, in particular the Prime Minister's Dawa Party  and its ally the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council , which are united against the Mahdi Army .

According to Walla al-Safar, the man in charge of one of Kabala's holy sites, the clashes began when a dozen or so militants, perched on a neighboring rooftop, opened fire on police. The confrontations ended early yesterday morning, witnesses said, after Iraqi security forces imposed a curfew. Several buildings burned down while ambulances were damaged and a police roadblock was destroyed, according to the local AFP correspondent. According to Walla al-Safar, also damaged were the golden dome and minarets of the mosque of Imam Hussein , a revered figure among Shiites.

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