By Michael Georgy
Reuters, 29 March 2006
BAGHDAD - Champions of the poor or sectarian thugs? A crisis over a U.S.-backed raid on an Iraqi mosque that cost at least 16 lives has again thrust attention on a Shi'ite militia led by fiery young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
His Mehdi Army fighters were guarding the Baghdad mosque complex at the time of Sunday's assault and shot at Iraqi troops as they approached, witnesses in the neighbourhood said.
"The Iraqi forces tried to enter the mosque and the Mehdi army fired at them. Iraqi forces entered the mosque and killed people," car mechanic Ali Jabber told Reuters.
Sadr's aides denied the Mehdi Army was involved in the violence and said the dead were innocent worshippers.
U.S. commanders have talked only of "terrorists" holding a hostage in the compound and say the bodies of gunmen killed in fighting had been piled in the mosque to simulate a massacre.
The political storm generated by the raid has seen three Shi'ite factions, including Sadr's, unite to denounce the Americans and demand that they hand security control to Iraqis.
All are part of the Shi'ite alliance that won December elections, but has since failed to agree with Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties on the formation of a national unity government.
The bloodshed at the Mustafa mosque has again highlighted Sadr's ambivalence about whether he can wield more power through politics or through paramilitary muscle on the streets.
After leading two revolts against U.S. and Iraqi troops in 2004, Sadr has kept a lower profile, but his fighters control many Shi'ite areas, such as the one around the Mustafa mosque.
Once a building owned by Saddam Hussein's Baath party, the compound also serves as a centre for services for the poor.
Mehdi army fighters run a virtual state-within-a-state for Iraqis plagued by divided leaders, violence and economic hardship since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam in 2003.
People like Um Ahmed, whose husband died in a stampede along with about 1,000 Shi'ites during a religious ritual in 2005, have nowhere else to turn.
"I went to the Sadr office and they gave me a compensation document and directed me to the Mustafa mosque," she said.
The Mehdi Army also mans checkpoints to protect people from other militias, Sunni insurgents and thieves, residents said.
GRASSROOTS SUPPORT
Sadr's fighters may be the hardest to tackle if Iraqi leaders heed the U.S. ambassador's recent call for a crackdown on militias accused of running sectarian death squads.
The cleric's network of support for the poor has made him popular and he also derives legitimacy from his father, a revered cleric who was believed killed by Saddam's agents.
"He is a speaker for justice and calls for the rights of the oppressed Iraqi people," said Adel Abul Hassan.
But not all Iraqis are convinced by the Robin Hood image.
"Some of these Mehdi Army people act like criminals. When we see a car with four men in black we know it is them. We just stay away," said a man who only gave his name as Samir.
Some Shi'ite militias, such as one linked to the big SCIRI faction, have their roots in Iran where exiled Iraqis and prisoners of war were recruited in the 1980s to fight Saddam.
Compared to them, the Mehdi Army enjoys more grassroots support, from labourers and shopkeepers and fishermen ready to pick up their rifles, grenades and mortars at short notice.
Sadr's militiamen did just that to counter a major U.S. offensive in Najaf in 2004, although some Iraqis dismissed their Islamist-nationalist rhetoric and accused them of destroying the sacred Shi'ite city south of Baghdad.
Many of Sadr's recruits come from Baghdad's Sadr City, named after his father and home to two million impoverished Shi'ites.
Sadr gained the respect of some Sunni Arabs by fighting the Americans but any cross-communal solidarity may have evaporated in the aftermath of the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine last month.
Sunni Arabs accused the Mehdi Army of burning their mosques and killing Sunni civilians in sectarian reprisals. Sadr's militiamen said they had tried to protect Sunni mosques.
"I used to love Sadr. But now some of his militiamen are just criminals. They kidnap and kill," said Mohammed Adel.
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Citation: Michael Georgy. "Iraq mosque crisis highlights Shi'ite militia role," Reuters, 29 March 2006.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29757672.htm
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