Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 5, 2008
Pg. 9
By Stephen Farrell
BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki sought to defuse recent tensions among Iraq’s Shiites on Friday by suspending raids by government forces on militias, less than 24 hours after he threatened further raids.
In softening his tone, Mr. Maliki said in a statement that he was suspending raids “in order to give a chance to those who have repented and want to lay down their weapons.”
On Thursday, Mr. Maliki said Basra was only the first stage of continuing operations to crack down on illegal militias and criminal gangs.
At gatherings for Friday Prayer across the country, preachers loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr urged their followers to follow his instructions to march in Baghdad next week to protest the American presence in Iraq. He called for a march on Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the day American forces captured the Iraqi capital.
Addressing thousands of worshipers in Mr. Sadr’s eastern Baghdad stronghold, Sadr City, Sattar al-Battat, a Sadrist preacher, told the crowd, “We want the occupier to leave our land; we should walk in crowds, and we must fill in the ground in order to show our refusal to everyone who tries to destroy our holy land.”
Sadr City was one of the places where fighting broke out between the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to Mr. Sadr, and American forces last month, in the wake of battles between the militia and Iraqi forces in Basra.
Many entrances to Sadr City remain sealed off by United States troops, while Sadrist fighters are guarding street corners inside a cordon, on constant alert for further American raids.
The recent government and American military actions appear to have done little to diminish Sadrist control over Sadr City.
While some gunmen sat on street corners with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades on Friday, other Sadrists set up the tight cordon around the central square, coordinating their movements with walkie-talkies.
Wearing distinctive stewards’ uniforms of peach-colored shirts and laminated and numbered badges, they closed surrounding streets to vehicles and searched arriving worshipers. While Sadrist spokesmen accused the Maliki government of carrying out the Americans’ agenda in Iraq, the men handed out leaflets that bore a crude computer-generated caricature of the prime minister and taunted him for “saying what he is told, just like a parrot.”
The rally planned for Wednesday was originally scheduled to be in Najaf, but was switched to Baghdad, organizers say, to allow more people to take part.
In Diyala on Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral procession, killing nine civilians and wounding 30, the police said. The funeral was for a policeman who was killed in an attack the previous day.
April 5, 2008
Pg. 9
By Stephen Farrell
BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki sought to defuse recent tensions among Iraq’s Shiites on Friday by suspending raids by government forces on militias, less than 24 hours after he threatened further raids.
In softening his tone, Mr. Maliki said in a statement that he was suspending raids “in order to give a chance to those who have repented and want to lay down their weapons.”
On Thursday, Mr. Maliki said Basra was only the first stage of continuing operations to crack down on illegal militias and criminal gangs.
At gatherings for Friday Prayer across the country, preachers loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr urged their followers to follow his instructions to march in Baghdad next week to protest the American presence in Iraq. He called for a march on Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the day American forces captured the Iraqi capital.
Addressing thousands of worshipers in Mr. Sadr’s eastern Baghdad stronghold, Sadr City, Sattar al-Battat, a Sadrist preacher, told the crowd, “We want the occupier to leave our land; we should walk in crowds, and we must fill in the ground in order to show our refusal to everyone who tries to destroy our holy land.”
Sadr City was one of the places where fighting broke out between the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to Mr. Sadr, and American forces last month, in the wake of battles between the militia and Iraqi forces in Basra.
Many entrances to Sadr City remain sealed off by United States troops, while Sadrist fighters are guarding street corners inside a cordon, on constant alert for further American raids.
The recent government and American military actions appear to have done little to diminish Sadrist control over Sadr City.
While some gunmen sat on street corners with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades on Friday, other Sadrists set up the tight cordon around the central square, coordinating their movements with walkie-talkies.
Wearing distinctive stewards’ uniforms of peach-colored shirts and laminated and numbered badges, they closed surrounding streets to vehicles and searched arriving worshipers. While Sadrist spokesmen accused the Maliki government of carrying out the Americans’ agenda in Iraq, the men handed out leaflets that bore a crude computer-generated caricature of the prime minister and taunted him for “saying what he is told, just like a parrot.”
The rally planned for Wednesday was originally scheduled to be in Najaf, but was switched to Baghdad, organizers say, to allow more people to take part.
In Diyala on Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral procession, killing nine civilians and wounding 30, the police said. The funeral was for a policeman who was killed in an attack the previous day.