Muqtada Sadr orders followers to end fighting

Radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr ordered his followers today to end six days of fighting, which has killed more than 300 people and threaten to reverse recent security gains across Iraq.

In a statement issued by Sadr’s headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, the cleric disavowed any armed members who attack government institutions and party offices.

“Based on the responsibility imposed by Islamic law and to save precious Iraqi blood … we have decided the following: to end the armed manifestation in Basra and all over the governorates,” Sadr said.

In return, the cleric demanded that the government stop what he described as random raids and release all prisoners who have not been proved guilty of offenses.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s spokesman, Ali Dabbagh, welcomed Sadr’s statement in an interview broadcast on state-run television but did not say whether the government had agreed to the cleric’s terms.

There was no immediate evidence of a let-up in the fighting that has raged since Tuesday in the southern Shiite heartland and parts of Baghdad. Residents hunkered down in their homes reported hearing heavy gunfire and explosions in central Basra and along the Shatt al Arab waterway.

The capital was also rocked by occasional blasts, despite an around-the-clock curfew.

The violence erupted when more than 28,000 Iraqi police and soldiers began a crackdown against armed Shiite factions and criminal gangs that have flourished in Basra, the southern oil hub that generates most of the government’s revenue.

Maliki, who has staked his reputation on the campaign, has said that the operation does not target any specific group, only “outlaws” who use violence to gain power and influence in the lawless city. But his forces have so far targeted only neighborhoods under the control of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia.

At least two other armed factions control parts of the city. One of them is associated with provincial Gov. Mohammed Waeli, and the other with Maliki’s governing partner, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council.

Sadr’s followers alleged that the Supreme Council and Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party are using the crackdown to target their rivals before provincial elections slated for the fall.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com

Times staff writer Zavis reported from Baghdad and special correspondent Fakhrildeen from Najaf. Special correspondents in Baghdad and Basra contributed to this report.