Hundreds of police officers and civilians marched in Basra on Wednesday denouncing ”British aggression” in the raid to free the two undercover soldiers arrested by Iraqi police on Monday.
The protesters, some carrying handguns and AK-47s, chanted ”No to occupation” and waved banners calling for the two men be tried as terrorists. Soldiers and armed police watched the march but did not intervene.
Senior aides to Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi militia were at the heart of Monday’s events, hit back at what they said were ”distortions and nonsense” designed to discredit the firebrand cleric.
”What is all this talk of infiltration of the police and destabilisation of Basra by supporters of Moqtada?” asked Abbas al-Rubaei, a spokesperson for al-Sadr in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad.
”The real problem of stability in Basra was the fact that British forces attacked a police station and in doing so released 150 Salafists [Sunni militants] on to the streets.”
He was referring to reports, denied by British forces, that 150 prisoners escaped when British tanks demolished a prison wall to rescue the two men.
In Najaf, a senior aide to al-Sadr, Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, said: ”The media and the British are not reflecting a true version of events, which is that the people of Basra, including members of the al-Mehdi army, came to the support of the Iraqi police who were under attack by the British for trying to do their jobs.
”The real problem here is of Iraqi sovereignty. We may have it in name, but we won’t see it in reality until the occupation forces leave. That is the only message that Moqtada is giving.”
He said that a few days earlier thousands of Mehdi members had provided security for a huge Shi’ite pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala.
”Was that reported?” he asked.
The Basra riots have returned al-Sadr and his legion of followers across southern Iraq to the spotlight. Exact numbers for his Mehdi militia are not known — estimates vary from 10 000 to 50 000 — but he enjoys support in Sadr City as well as the southern cities of Nasriya, Karbala, Kufa, Diwaniyah and Basra. He has also been cultivating Shi’ite support in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Tal Affar.
In Basra, the Mehdi army vies for influence with the Badr brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and Hizbullah in Iraq, a small, marshland-based group.
Al-Sadr’s supporters say they are now waiting for his next move. Last year, the cleric, in his early 30s, instigated two failed uprisings against United States-led forces. But observers said on Wednesday he is unlikely to embark on a third armed rebellion.
”He may be volatile, but he is not stupid,” said a Western diplomat in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ”He knows he led many young Shia to a senseless death last year and that he cannot afford to alienate the Shia establishment.”
Al-Sadr is of a far lower clerical rank than Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, but his fiery anti-US message has drawn many younger, poorer, disillusioned Shi’ites.
He is, however, seen by the mainstream as impulsive and irresponsible, and followers have been accused of thuggery and intolerance. In Najaf, they set up their own religious courts and arrested hundreds of people on charges including selling alcohol and ”immoral” music. There were reports of summary executions.
In Basra, residents have spoken of intimidation and worse. Earlier this year, a group of students on a picnic in Basra park was attacked. Others speak of kidnapping, even killings, although his supporters shun the suicide bombings and beheadings favoured by Sunni extremists.
Since the Najaf uprising, al-Sadr has gradually moved towards mainstream politics, encouraged by Ahmad Chalabi, the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Iraqi National Congress. Al-Sadr may want the US troops out of the country and continues to justify the resistance, but he has also advised his supporters against provoking coalition forces.
”We are waiting to see the outcome of the political process,” al-Rubaei said on Wednesday. — Guardian Unlimited Â