KUFA, Iraq, 14 June 2008 — Iraq’s hard-line Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr said yesterday he plans to form a new wing of his powerful movement to battle US forces, allowing other members to focus on social issues.
In a statement issued to his nearly 60,000 strong Mehdi Army militia, the anti-American cleric said the fight against US troops will now be waged only by the new group, while other members will “take on a social and religious role.”
“The resistance will be carried out exclusively by a special group which I will announce later,” Sadr said in a statement which was read out at mosques in the holy Shiite town of Kufa. “We will keep resisting the occupier until the liberation (of Iraq) or (our) martyrdom.”
However, Sadr also urged others in his militia to lay down their arms to work on building social, cultural and religious services in Iraq’s predominant Shiite community.
“Brothers, you should follow this recommendation, and anyone who does not obey will not be with me.”
Sadr’s spokesman Salah Al-Obeidi told AFP the move was aimed at building a more comprehensive movement that could better serve its followers. “Sadr’s view is to take the Mehdi Army on the path of social and cultural activities, far from the military. He wants to reform it and limit its responsibility,” he said. The announcement came amid controversy in Iraq and in neighboring Iran over negotiations between Baghdad and Washington for a new pact to cover the US military presence when a UN mandate expires at the end of the year.
“We refuse the current agreement. Any kind of American troops base inside Iraq is bad for Iraqi future,” Obeidi said.
US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign a Status of Forces Agreement by the end of July, but US demands have enraged various Iraqi political groups.
Sadr, one of the strongest critics of the US military presence and of the planned pact, said his new group will direct its operations against US forces but will be banned from fighting Iraqis.
“This group will be professional and it will be the only group carrying arms which will be directed against the occupier. It will be banned from using arms against any Iraqis.”
The Mehdi Army has often clashed with US forces since the March 2003 invasion that toppled the Sunni-led regime of Saddam Hussein.
In 2004, Sadr led two rebellions against American troops from the holy city of Najaf, which saw hundreds of his militiamen killed.
Last August, he suspended Mehdi Army activities after allegations his fighters were engaged in a bloody battle in the Shiite city of Kerbala during a major religious festival.
Since then, the Sadr group maintains the militia has not broken the cease-fire but its fighters have been involved in battles against US and Iraqi troops that erupted in late March in Baghdad and other Shiite regions.
Hundreds of people were killed in the clashes, which broke out after Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shiite militias. The US military had repeatedly accused the Mehdi Army, which is mainly dominant in Baghdad’s impoverished Sadr City district, of killing Sunni Arabs during Iraq’s vicious sectarian conflict.
At least four people were killed yesterday and six injured in separate incidents in Iraq, Iraqi police sources and reports said.
Police sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur that a US patrol had clashed with illegal militants in Baghdad’s industrial district, killing two passengers including a woman.
