Feb 20, 2008 11:30 am US/Pacific
Radical Cleric May End Cease-Fire In Iraq
BAGHDAD (CBS News) ―
Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr may let a six-month cease-fire expire as soon as Saturday, an aide said - a move that could send his Shiite militia fighters back out on the streets and jeopardize recent security gains that have led to a sharp decline in violence.
Al-Sadr's Shiite Mahdi Army is among the most powerful militias in Iraq, and the cease-fire he ordered last August has been credited with helping reduce violence around Iraq by 60 percent or more in the past six months.
Splinter groups of the Mahdi Army have been blamed for much of the violence that still plagues some parts of Iraq. Called "special groups" by the U.S. military, they are thought to have been behind a series of rocket attacks in Baghdad over the past few days that have killed more than a dozen people and wounded scores, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey from Baghdad.
Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, a spokesman for al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, said that if the cleric failed to issue a statement by Saturday saying that the cease-fire was extended, "then that means the freeze is over." Al-Sadr's followers would be free to resume attacks.
On an Internet site representing al-Sadr, al-Obeidi said that al-Sadr "either will announce the extension or will stay silent and not announce anything. If he will stay silent that means that the freeze is over."
Al-Obeidi said that message "has been conveyed to all Mahdi Army members nationwide."
Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a military spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement that the cease-fire declared by al-Sadr's last August was good for the Iraqi people.
"Al-Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr's cease-fire has been helpful in reducing violence and has led to improved security in Iraq. We would welcome the extension of the cease-fire as a positive step," he said, using an honorific reserved for descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.
The military is not sure why the groups have suddenly become so active. Equally, no one can say for sure why al-Sadr is dangling the menace of going back to street warfare. He may be simply underscoring that he is a player who must be recognized. Equally, there is the possibility that he is concerned the "special groups" are gaining the upper hand while he plays a more diplomatic role with the United States, reports Pizzey.
While the U.S. has welcomed the cease-fire, it also has insisted on continuing to stage raids against what it calls Iranian-backed breakaway factions of the Mahdi Army militia - moved that have angered the cleric's followers.
Influential members of al-Sadr's movement said earlier this month they had urged the radical cleric to call off the cease-fire, which was initially set to expire at the end of the month.
Al-Sadr's followers have claimed the U.S.-Iraqi raids, particularly in the southern Shiite cities of Diwaniyah, Basra and Karbala, are a pretext to crack down on the wider movement, which has pulled its support for the Washington-backed government.
A Sunni parliament member, Asmaa al-Dulaimi, said that if the truce is broken it would hurt the prospects for national reconciliation "and will further deteriorate the security situation nationwide."
"Resuming their activities, whether against the government or civilians, will lead to a new confrontation with them," she said.
Iraqi police, meanwhile, held funerals Wednesday for 14 officers killed the night before as they responded to a rocket attack launched from a predominantly Shiite neighborhood against U.S. bases in the capital.
In a separate attack, three American troops were killed by a roadside bomb Tuesday night in northwestern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Their names were not released.
No one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's rocket attack, the second in as many days, but in both cases the explosives apparently were launched from Shiite militia strongholds in the capital, underscoring the fragility of the truce. Smith, at a news conference later Wednesday, blamed Iranian-backed Shiite militias for the attacks but said the rationale behind the timing of the attacks was unclear.
The blast that killed the Iraqis occurred after police, acting on a tip, discovered rockets primed for firing behind a deserted ice factory.
A band played Wednesday as four pick-up trucks carried the coffins of the slain police in a slow-moving funeral procession. Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani walked with other officials at the back of the line.
Brig. Gen. Jihad al-Jubouri, head of the anti-bombing squad at the Interior Ministry, said the blast killed 11 bomb experts and three other officers.
A dust storm that has gripped much of Iraq for the last two days kept police from identifying a booby trap that set off the initial explosion, he said. The storms, which shut down the capital's airport and sent dozens of Baghdad residents to hospitals with breathing difficulties, were expected to abate Thursday.
Officials had initially said that as many as 15 police were slain and up to 27 wounded.
Four U.S. soldiers were wounded in Tuesday's rocket attack against their outposts in the capital, the military said.
On Monday, a rocket volley landed on an Iraqi housing complex near the Baghdad international airport and a nearby U.S. military base, killing at least five people and wounding 16, including two U.S. soldiers, officials said.
The attacks have been among the most intense to strike the capital in weeks as violence has declined sharply with an influx of some 30,000 U.S. troops, a Sunni revolt against al Qaeda in Iraq and al-Sadr's cease-fire.
In other developments:- Samir al-Attar, deputy minister of Iraq's Ministry of Science and Technology, was wounded Wednesday when two roadside bombs detonated near his convoy about a minute apart as he was driving through Baghdad, according to police and ministry officials. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't allowed to release the information.
- In Diyala province north of Baghdad, where U.S. and Iraqi forces are working to push out al Qaeda in Iraq, a suicide bomber's belt detonated near a line of people who were buying bread Wednesday, killing seven and wounding 17, said an official in the provincial command operation center, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
