Al-Sadr To Followers: Refuse Surrender

As U.S., British Forces Join Basra Offensive, Militants Reject Call To Disarm; 2 U.S. Troops Killed in Baghdad

(CBS/AP)  Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged he may have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where Shiite militias wield power.

Government television said the round-the-clock curfew imposed two days ago on the capital and due to expire Sunday would be extended indefinitely. Gunfire and explosions were heard late Saturday in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

The U.S. Embassy tightened its security measures, ordering all staff to use armored vehicles for all travel in the Green Zone and to sleep in reinforced buildings until further notice after six days of rocket and mortar attacks which left two Americans dead.

Despite the mounting crisis, al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, vowed to remain in Basra until government forces wrest control from militias, including the Mahdi Army. He called the fight for control of Basra "a decisive and final battle."

British ground troops, who controlled the city until handing it over to the Iraqis last December, also joined the battle for Basra, firing artillery Saturday for the first time in support of Iraqi forces.

Iraqi authorities have given Basra extremists until April 8 to surrender heavy and medium weapons after an initial 72-hour ultimatum to hand them over was widely ignored.

But a defiant al-Sadr called on his followers Saturday to ignore the order, saying that his Mahdi Army would turn in its weapons only to a government that can "get the occupier out of Iraq," referring to the Americans.

The order was made public by Haidar al-Jabiri, a member of the influential political commission of the Sadrist movement.

Al-Sadr, in an interview aired Saturday by Al-Jazeera television, said his Mahdi Army was capable of "liberating Iraq" and maintained al-Maliki's government was as "distant" from the people as Saddam Hussein's.

Residents of Basra contacted by telephone said Mahdi militiamen were manning checkpoints Saturday in their neighborhood strongholds. The sound of intermittent mortar and machine gun fire rang out across the city, as the military headquarters at a downtown hotel came under repeated fire.

An Iraqi army battalion commander and two of his bodyguards were killed Saturday night by a roadside bomb in central Basra, military spokesman Col. Karim al-Zaidi said.

The fight for Basra is crucial for al-Maliki, who flew to Basra earlier this week and is staking his credibility on gaining control of Iraq's second-largest city, which has essentially been held by armed groups for nearly three years.

In a speech Saturday to tribal leaders in Basra, al-Maliki promised to "stand up to these gangs" not only in the south but throughout Iraq.

Iraqi officials and their American partners have long insisted that the crackdown was not directed at al-Sadr's movement but against criminals and renegade factions - some of whom are allegedly tied to Iran.

Al-Maliki told tribal leaders that the offensive in Basra "was only to deal with these gangs" - some of which he said "are worse than al Qaeda."

Without mentioning the Sadrists by name, al-Maliki said he was "surprised to see that party emerge with all the weapons available to it and strike at everything - institutions, people, departments, police stations and the army."

Al-Sadr's followers have accused rival Shiite parties in the national government of trying to crush their movement before provincial elections this fall. The young cleric's lieutenants had warned repeatedly that any move to dislodge them from Basra would provoke bloodshed.

But al-Maliki's comments appeared to reinforce suspicions that his government failed to foresee the backlash, including a sharp upsurge in violence throughout the Shiite south and shelling of the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, the nerve center of the Iraqi leadership and the U.S. mission.

Two American soldiers were killed Saturday when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in mostly Shiite east Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

The upsurge in violence prompted Iraqi authorities to impose a round-the-clock curfew on the capital, which expires at sunrise Sunday.

All that threatens to undermine White House efforts to convince a skeptical Congress and the American public that the Iraqis are making progress toward managing their own security without the presence of U.S. troops.

With the Shiite militiamen defiant, a group of police in the Mahdi Army's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City abandoned their posts and handed over their weapons to al-Sadr's local office. Police forces in Baghdad are believed heavily influenced or infiltrated by Mahdi militiamen.

"We can't fight our brothers in the Mahdi Army, so we came here to submit our weapons," one policeman said on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

He said about 40 policemen had defected to the Mahdi Army. The figure could not be confirmed, but AP Television News footage showed about a dozen uniformed police, their faces covered with masks to shield their identity, being met by Sheik Salman al-Feraiji, al-Sadr's chief representative in Sadr City.

Al-Feraiji greeted each policeman and gave them a copy of the Quran and an olive branch as they handed over their guns and ammunition.

On Saturday, Iraqi officials said they had received a phone call from Tahseen Sheikhly, the high-profile civilian spokesman for the Baghdad security operation, who was seized by gunmen two days earlier from at his home in a Shiite area of the capital.

An Iraqi-owned satellite television station, Sharqiya, broadcast what it said was a tape of the conversation, in which a man identifying himself as Sheikhly said he was being held "with a group of officers" at an unknown location.

"Our release depends on the withdrawal of al-Maliki from Basra and the easing of the military operations against the Sadrists in all provinces," he said. "We appeal to the prime minister and the Iraqi government to work with the Sadrist movement, which represents the popular base of society."

The U.S. military says 16 enemy fighters have been killed in airstrikes supporting Iraqi troops during clashes with Shiite militiamen in Basra.

Military spokesman Maj. Brad Leighton says an AC-130 gunship strafed heavily armed militants attacking Iraqi forces from three rooftops in the southern city.

Iraqi police earlier claimed eight civilians, including two women and a child, had been killed when a U.S. warplane destroyed a house early Saturday.

But Leighton says U.S. special operations forces helped identify the militants before the airstrike.

British military spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway also says U.S. jets later dropped two precision-guided bombs on a suspected militia stronghold north of the city, but no casualties were reported.

"My understanding was that this was a building that had people who were shooting back at Iraqi ground forces," Holloway said.

American forces launched their first air strikes in Basra late Thursday as Iraqi troops struggled against strong resistance.

In Baghdad, Iraqi police said U.S. helicopters carried out air strikes on the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City Friday night. Television footage showed destroyed buildings and the smoking wreckage of at least one car.

But the U.S. military said in an e-mail that the only air assault it carried out last night was in the Kazamiyah neighborhood, west of Sadr City, killing 10 militants.

Iraq's Health Ministry, which is close to the Sadrist movement, on Saturday reported at least 75 civilians have been killed and at least 500 others injured in a week of clashes and air strikes in Sadr City and other eastern Baghdad neighborhoods.

The U.S. military sharply disputes the claims, having said that most of those killed were militia members.

[caliengineer]

God''s word cannot be broken. God said that the sons of Ishmael will live by the sword, fighting with each other and live in open hatred with the sons of Jacob (the Jews).

Only when the Kingdom of God encompasses the world will there be peace.

Read the Bible and believe it.

[libsrweak]

Funny - I got no response on this post earlier. Funny how conveniently it was ignored......


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Posted by hungry1968 at 11:10 AM : Mar 30, 2008
+ report abuse


*************

actually its funnier that you seem to give us facts that simply justify the ATTACKS ON ALL NON-MUSLIM forces who refuses to submit to terrorism.

here is one fact that you seem to have missed to refuse to drill into your mind..

these islamic terrorists DONT GIVE A *** ABOUT THE PALESTINIANS..they are nothing more than usefull pawns..what is pretty much as plain as daylight is Islam''s intolerance towards non-muslims...confimed by several killings of anything that is non-muslim in the entire middle east. YOU KNOW AN ATHIEST IS LOWER THAN A DOG in middle east..they would rather behead you than give you an audience).

second and final, this intolerance finally found its way stateside..meaning..if we are not relentless we would be just like israel..

[sgtrds]

The body of a bro of all vets, Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, was identified in the Iraq war. He is a hero. I just checked his story and saw only one RIP. Come on bro''s, he deserves better and so does his family. We stand together. It''s not possible to do too much to honor our fallen comrades. Say your words for his family.

[underdogus]

Quran = Bible

Mohammed = Jesus

Allah = God

Mecca = Bethlehem

72 virgins = kingdom of god

and on, and on, and on..... Only the blinded don''''t see it.
Posted by hungry1968 hungry= submit to islam

[usmcvn2]

Singinrick08........Dude!! Go take your meds!!

[hungry1968]

AS you''''''''ve stated several times on these forums, you believe they have an excuse to attack us because we support Israel.

Posted by singinrick08 at 09:56 AM : Mar 30, 2008





That''''s correct. I''''m not EXCUSING them for attacking us -- I''''m merely pointing out a fact. The REASON they gave for attacking us - and they''''ve said it numerous times, is we support Israel in their apartheid against the helpless Palestinian people.

Let me put it to you this way -- in 1991, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. We came to Kuwait''''s aid and pushed Saddam Hussein out, right? Now let''''s say the same scenario - Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait, but this time we side with Saddam Hussein AND give him arms, ammo, intelligence, foreign aid in the billions, technology, and other military assistance in their invasion of Kuwait. Who would win the fight - Kuwait or Iraq?

THAT is how the arabs view America - as coming to the aid of the BAD people - in this case, Israel. There is no way they can stand toe-to-toe militarily with the American backed Israeli''''s, so they''''re forced to terrorist, guerilla style attacks.

THAT is why we were attacked with terrorism on 9/11.

Posted by hungry1968 at 10:29 AM : Mar 30, 2008





Funny - I got no response on this post earlier. Funny how conveniently it was ignored......

[hungry1968]

The "blinded" are the likes of you who refuse to see the Love of Jesus Christ as the Truth and His precious Gospel for the salvation of mankind.

It''''s right in the scriptures. You are the one that''''s blinded buddy. The scriptures describe your type to a t.

Posted by singinrick08 at 10:56 AM : Mar 30, 2008





Uh huh. And the Islamic are saying that I''m "blinded" and the likes of me, who refuse to see the Love of Allah as the Truth and His precious Gospel for the salvation of mankind.

To paraphrase Cheney, "So?"

[hungry1968]

The Quran doesn''''t equal the Bible atheist, God is Jehovah God, the Lord Jesus Christ, not "Allah", 72 virgins are a Quranic teaching in Islam, not in the Bible. Mecca is in Saudi Arabia and Bethlehem is in Israel. Your arrogance blinds you.

Jesus tells everyone to love one another.

Muhammed tells Muslims to kill everyone who refuses to submit to Islam.

Your lack of beleif in your life is the reason why you attack others who have a firm foundation.

That''''s why you''''re so incredibly arrogant on this matter.

Posted by singinrick08 at 10:53 AM : Mar 30, 2008




One is just as evil and vile as the other. There is no difference. Your religious zealotry blinds you to reality, like the other guys religious zealotry blinds him to reality. You both believe that "god is on your side", "the other guy is evil", and "the other guy wants my religion exterminated". THAT is what fuels your mutual hatred.

[hungry1968]

Yeah, that teaching them that they have a Lord who loves them, who wants us to love others, love our neighbors, and love our enemies......you''''re right, we can''''t have none of that love stuff can we hungry.

Terrible consequences for teaching someone that they have a Lord who loves them and that we are to love one another.

Such vehement terrorism I tell ya.

Dude get a clue.

Posted by singinrick08 at 10:50 AM : Mar 30, 2008





Yeah - is see the love all the time.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/01/mideast/

[hungry1968]

But again, since you don''''t see the world in black and white, you see it in blurry blurry gray, you can''''t see the Absolutes in all this.

Posted by singinrick08 at 10:47 AM : Mar 30, 2008





The term "Palestinian" isn''t a propaganda term - it''s the name of the people that lived in Palestine, until they were ruthlessly, militarily, and brutally evicted from their homeland. Because the name of the country was forcefully changed to "Israel", doesn''t mean that the victims need to now call themselves "Israeli''s".

I don''t make excuses for murder under any circumstances. Because you call it "black and white" or "absolute good vs absolute evil", doesn''t change the fact that murder is murder. There is no gray area there. When a Palestinian kills an Israeli, it''s a brutal bloodthirsty act of jihad fueled terrorism (aka - absolute evil). But when an Israeli kills a Palestinian, it''s "defending himself" against a brutal bloodthirsty act of jihad fueled terrorism (aka - absolute good).

To me they are both evil and vile acts. Yet you can somehow, in your bizarre christian poisoned brain, justify the one murder, but not the other. You better hope that there isn''t a god - he will surely send you to hell when you die for sanctioning murder.