Iraqi leader issues ultimatum as clashes continue in Basra

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki gave Shiite Muslim militiamen in Basra 72 hours to surrender their weapons and renounce violence today as Iraqi security forces traded fire for a second day with gunmen in the southern oil hub and parts of Baghdad.

For the third time this week, the capital’s fortified Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices, came under repeated rocket or mortar fire from Shiite sections of the city. Three U.S. government employees were seriously wounded in the bombardments, embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said.

The fighting in Basra erupted Tuesday when Iraqi security forces launched a crackdown against armed factions and criminal gangs that are vying for control of Iraq’s second-largest city and its lucrative oil industry. By this afternoon, more than 50 people had been killed and 212 injured in Basra and other cities, Iraqi security officials said.

The level of resistance represented a major challenge to Maliki’s authority and deepened fears that a cease-fire declared by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr is in danger of collapse. The U.S. military has said the truce is playing a key part in the improved security since a U.S. troop buildup reached its peak in June.

Sadr’s followers have complained for months that U.S. troops and rival factions within the Iraqi government and security forces are taking advantage of the truce to arrest their members and weaken the movement ahead of provincial elections slated for Oct. 1. His representatives called Tuesday for nationwide protests in response to the latest crackdown.

The unrest quickly spread to parts of Baghdad and cities in the southern Shiite heartland, where small demonstrations were held and members of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia continue to engage in sporadic clashes with the security forces and rival gunmen.

Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a U.S. military spokesman, denied today that Sadr’s followers were being singled out and reiterated American pledges that those who respect the cleric’s cease-fire will be treated with consideration. But he said American and Iraqi forces would continue to go after rogue elements of the Mahdi militia, whom U.S. commanders maintain are continuing to wage attacks with backing from Iran – a charge denied by Tehran.

“Enforcement of the rule of law in Basra is not a war against the Jaish al-Mahdi,” Bergner said, using the Arabic name for Sadr’s militia. “It is the government of Iraq taking the necessary action to deal with criminals on the streets.”

Analysts, however, called that an oversimplification of the power struggles within Iraq’s majority Shiite Muslim community.

Large parts of Sadr’s movement boycotted the last provincial polls in 2005, handing control of most of the Shiite south to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and Maliki’s Islamic Dawa party. But the two parties have provided little by way of development and services in the provinces they control and could lose ground to Sadr’s followers in the next elections.

“The current fighting is as much a power struggle for control of the south, and the Shiite parts of Baghdad and the rest of the country, as an effort to establish central government authority and legitimate rule,” said military expert Anthony Cordesman in an analysis for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

More than 28,000 Iraqi soldiers and police are participating in the Basra offensive, the largest operation undertaken by government forces alone since U.S.-led troops invaded in 2003.

British forces handed over responsibility for security in Basra to the provincial government in December. The U.S.-led forces have advisors embedded with some of the Iraqi units and are providing aerial surveillance for the crackdown, but they have not been asked to play a direct role, Bergner said at a news briefing.

Iraqi commanders acknowledged that they have encountered stiff resistance as they push into parts of central and northern Basra that are controlled by the Mahdi Army. Maj. Tom Holloway, a British military spokesman, said today that parts of the city remain under de facto control of Sadr’s militia and other armed groups.

A statement from Maliki, who is overseeing the campaign from Basra, gave the militiamen 72 hours to turn themselves in, hand in their weapons and sign a written pledge renouncing violence. Anyone who failed to commit to the terms would face unspecified penalties, said the statement read on state-run television.

Representatives at Sadr’s headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Najaf said the cleric planned to send representatives to Basra to negotiate with Iraqi leaders.

They maintained that Sadr’s cease-fire remained in effect but said his followers had a right to defend themselves against unjustified attacks.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

ned.parker@latimes.com

Special correspondent Saad Fakhrildeen in Najaf and special correspondents in Baghdad and Basra contributed to this report.