Iraq: Heading for showdown

2003-09-07 20:27

Najaf, Iraq - The US-led coalition appeared Sunday headed for a showdown with Iraqi militias after giving them an ultimatum to lay down their arms that was immediately rejected by a leading anti-US firebrand.

Captain Edward Lofland, spokesperson for the US Marines in this holy Shiite city, said coalition forces had given unauthorised militias until Saturday to disarm or have their weapons confiscated and face possible arrest.

A leading Shi'ite group, whose head was among 83 people killed in a massive car bombing nine days ago, gave qualified backing to the disarmament drive. But an aide to the militant cleric Moqtada Sadr dismissed it categorically.

"We obey only God and our religious leaders. We don't care about what the Americans say," said Sheikh Juad al-Issawi, a member of Sadr's office.

The presence of heavily-armed militia in Najaf and elsewhere has become a key issue in efforts to stabilise Iraq, which has been plagued by violence and lawlessness since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in April.

Lofland said the deployment by the two largest Shi'ite factions on the streets of Najaf and nearby Kufah since the car bombing here was a clear violation of the ban on militia imposed by the coalition in June.

Surrender weapons

He said they had until Saturday to surrender their weapons. "After that, we will take their arms away and, if they resist, we will arrest them and put them in jail," Lofland told AFP.

The US Marines have maintained a discreet presence around Najaf, where Salvadoran and Honduran troops have been brought in for patrols.

The Americans have also sanctioned a new 400-strong local protection force for Najaf's main shrine, the tomb of Imam Ali, that was inaugurated after the blast that killed Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim.

Lofland said that after Saturday's deadline, unauthorised Iraqis would be stripped of their arms, including Sadr's nascent forces and the estimated 10 000-strong Badr militia operated by Hakim's Iran-backed political movement.

He said the coalition would prefer the militia to disarm voluntarily and, in the second instance, would call upon Iraqi police. But in the last resort, he said: "We will not hesitate to disarm them by force if necessary."

Lofland said the coalition had initially turned a blind eye to the militia's growing presence during the first three days of mourning for Hakim and the 82 other victims of the blast.

But it has been decided to extend that period until next Saturday because "there was some confusion about who was being authorised to carry weapons" "We understand that they want to help the police, that's why we are not being aggressive towards them.

Disarm voluntarily

Lofland said the coalition had asked the US-appointed Iraqi interim Governing Council to appeal to the militia groups to disarm voluntarily. But council member Muaffak al-Rubai said they had not been contacted.

Sedreddin al-Kubbanji, the Najaf chief of Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), agreed with the deadline but called on the coalition to clear more people protecting Muslim shrines and clerics.

"I think there is no problem in principle," Kubbanji said. "The prinicple is that those who carry the weapons should do so within the regulations and with licences."

But Issawi was adamant that Sadr's forces would not surrender their weapons. "The Americans came two days ago. They tried to disarm us. But we said we could not do it," he said.

"We need to carry weapons to defend our religious leaders. One has been killed. There have been two attempts against Moqtada Sadr's life as well, and the Americans have done nothing to protect him," Issawi said.

One of the commanders of Sadr's militias, Faisal al-Zaidi, stressed that the whole neighbourhood around Sadr's home in a residential district of Najaf, 180km south of Baghdad, was behind the militia.

"All the people in the area support our cause," he said, brandishing a Kalashnikov. "If Americans come back, then the people will come out in support again."

Issawi said all of Sadr's followers were prepared to lay down their lives for the cleric, who is the son of a revered religious leader killed under ousted president Saddam Hussein.

"If the Americans try to do anything to harm our religious leaders that will be the end of the Americans," he said.

- AFP