US brands Sadr an outlaw

2004-04-05 12:19

Baghdad - US authorities in Iraq on Monday branded Moqtada Sadr, a radical cleric from the Shiite majority, an outlaw.

Sadr is at the head of an uprising against the US-led occupation of the country, where at least seven US soldiers and 46 Iraqis were killed on Sunday.

Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator of Iraq, pledged that US forces would stop Sadr from trying to seize authority.

"We have a group under Moqtada al-Sadr that has basically placed itself outside the legal authorities, the coalition and Iraqi officials," Bremer said.

"He is attempting to establish his authority in the place of the legitimate authority. We will not tolerate this. We will reassert the law and order which the Iraqi people expect," Bremer told a national security meeting.

Capture

Fresh violence broke out in Baghdad, in the British-controlled southern port of Basra and in the central holy Shiite city of Karbala, as Sadr's Mehdi Army militia seized control of a government building and tried to capture others.

In Baghdad, fighting raged for a second day as US troops shot at people throwing stones in the squalid slum of Sadr City.

A young child was wounded after soldiers fired back at people pelting them with rocks, an AFP photographer witnessed.

Hundreds of angry Shiites had gathered in the slum for the funeral of an Iraqi killed late on Sunday, during fierce clashes between coalition forces and the Mehdi Army, in which 22 Iraqis and seven US soldiers were killed.

Another 85 Iraqis and 24 US troops were wounded in the running street battles.

Revered

Tensions also ran high in the central Shiite holy city of Karbala, where Sadr supporters clashed with police in an attempt to seize public buildings, including the governor's office, as well as revered shrines.

Sadr told his followers Sunday to "terrorise" the enemy because protests had become useless. It was not clear whether Sadr's call to escalate confrontation was an order to resort to violence.

Fighting also raged in the restive Sunni town of Fallujah early on Monday, between anti-coalition fighters and US troops. One resident spoke of several people killed or wounded when US aircraft bombed residential areas.

On Sunday, fighting rocked the Shiite shrine city of Najaf, where at least 20 people were killed and more than 200 wounded when Mehdi Army militiamen confronted Spanish-led coalition forces.

Another four were killed in similar clashes between British-led forces and Sadr's people in the southern city of Amara.

- AFP