7 U.S. Troops Killed as Shiite Anger Erupts

Thousands of followers of a virulently anti-American Shiite cleric heeded his calls for an uprising against the U.S. occupation, storming police stations and government buildings in several major cities Sunday and triggering clashes that left at least eight coalition soldiers and 21 Iraqis dead.

Hundreds of Iraqis -- and more than three dozen U.S. soldiers -- were wounded in heavy fighting in central and southern Iraq. The seemingly coordinated attacks demonstrated the power of Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority and fanned long-held fears of an uprising in that population’s southern stronghold.

Seven U.S. soldiers died in fighting in a Baghdad slum -- named after the cleric’s assassinated father -- pushing the U.S. death toll to at least 610 since the war began March 20, 2003.

Confrontations at a military base outside the Shiite holy city of Najaf left at least one Salvadoran soldier and 21 Iraqis dead, as well as more than 100 demonstrators injured. The Spanish Defense Ministry reported that a U.S. soldier was also killed in the clash near Najaf, but U.S. military officials could not confirm that information.

Skirmishes also erupted in the southern cities of Basra, Amarah and Nasiriya. The confrontations marked the culmination of months of tension between cleric Muqtader Sadr and U.S.-led occupation forces. Almost all of the last year’s attacks on the coalition forces are believed to have come from foreign fighters and Sunni Muslims loyal to the former regime of Saddam Hussein, which violently repressed Iraq’s Shiite majority. Coalition officials have counted on the Shiites’ support to stabilize the nation. Any armed revolt by Shiites could threaten the U.S.-led occupation’s June 30 deadline for returning power to the Iraqis.

On Sunday, U.S. troops rolled into the sprawling Baghdad slum known as Sadr City after Sadr’s supporters attacked police posts with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the military said. Residents reported that American forces responded with tanks, helicopters and Humvees, and that three armored personnel carriers were burned.

“It seems [the Americans] want to create mass graves for the Mahdi army,” Qassim Saadi, a Sadr supporter in the slum, said Sunday night by telephone, referring to the cleric’s militia force.

This morning, Sadr City was reported to be calmer, with numerous residents -- and soldiers -- on the streets. But officials warned that Sunday’s developments were ominous.

“This is extremely dangerous,” said Ghazi Ajil Yawer, a member of the U.S.-backed Governing Council, which was forced to stay away from its offices Sunday. “What is happening in the south is very serious, it is a popular movement.”

Sunday’s clashes were sparked by the arrest of a top Sadr aide for alleged involvement in the assassination of a rival ayatollah last year. The arrest sparked rallies across the nation that began without violence Saturday, but by Sunday night escalated into running gun battles. The demonstration at the Spanish-run base in Najaf, about 80 miles south of Baghdad, ended only after coalition fighter jets and helicopters buzzed low over the crowds.

Secluded in a heavily guarded mosque in the nearby city of Kufa, Sadr issued an ambiguously worded pamphlet that called on his followers to quit their protest marches, but to find other ways to “horrify your enemy.” He called the occupation forces “terrorists,” and his supporters blamed coalition troops for starting the violence.

“Horrify your enemy, God will reward you well for what pleases him. It is not possible to remain silent in front of their abuse,” Sadr’s statement said.

L. Paul Bremer III, the U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq, condemned the violence during a news conference Sunday afternoon to announce the appointment of new Iraqi heads of the defense ministry and intelligence service.

Noting that Iraqis had gained the freedom to hold public demonstrations after Hussein’s ouster, Bremer said: “These freedoms must be exercised peacefully. This morning, a group of people in Najaf have crossed the line and they have moved to violence. This will not be tolerated.”

Sunday’s clashes, along with the savage killings of four American contractors in Fallouja last week and other violence, prompted some in Congress to question whether the U.S. can return sovereignty to Iraqis at the end of June.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on ABC’s “This Week” that the U.S. should consider sending more troops to Iraq and postponing the hand-over.

“It may be that we need more troops, and the question of whether the troops are there, only Secretary Rumsfeld and others can answer,” Lugar said, referring to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld regarding the strains on manpower from deployments in Afghanistan, Haiti and other trouble spots.

Lugar said U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces are “not ready at all” to take responsibility for dealing with militias such as Sadr’s and other hostile forces.

Asked if it was time to extend the June 30 deadline, Lugar said, “It may be, and I think it’s time to probably have that debate, because clearly pragmatically, as we’re discussing today, you have the militia that has not been disarmed. And, in fact, the worse the situation becomes, the militia begin to fight each other, that is, civil war.”

Sunday’s clashes with Sadr’s supporters coincided with the approach of the Shiite holiday of Arbayeen, which begins Saturday. More than a million pilgrims are expected to flock to the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf to mark the close of the traditional 40-day mourning period for the prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein.

During a holiday in February also commemorating Hussein, suicide bombers killed about 200 Shiite pilgrims, and Sadr blamed the coalition for the attacks.

Sadr’s organization has demanded to control security at holy sites for the upcoming holiday, but the U.S. has refused. In statements last week, Sadr warned his followers that any violence this weekend will be the fault of the Americans.

Sadr commands the loyalty of vast numbers of impoverished Shiites both in the Baghdad slums and southern Iraq. Although he is considered far more radical than the revered Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, he boasts a fervent following. Last fall, he began building his Al Mahdi army, whose strength was undergoing its first test Sunday.

For months, Sadr has been in a standoff with the American-led coalition. He has issued heated calls for Americans to leave Iraq. But, except for a skirmish with coalition troops in October in a Baghdad slum, his forces have refrained from violence against the occupation.

Late last month, Sadr mobilized thousands of black-clad followers for angry but nonviolent protests after the U.S. closed a newspaper loyal to the cleric. On Friday, Sadr escalated his rhetoric, vowing to become an Iraqi arm of Hezbollah and Hamas, Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups respectively.

The remark alarmed U.S. military officials.

“You pay attention to any organization in this country that might be a threat to a democratic Iraq,” one official told reporters Sunday night.

Tension rose early Saturday when coalition troops stormed the Najaf home of Mustafa Yacoubi and detained him on a months-old warrant for alleged involvement in the hacking to death of a rival ayatollah outside a shrine in Najaf last April. Sadr’s organization Sunday night denied that Yacoubi had any role in the assassination.

Coalition officials, insisting on anonymity, said Yacoubi was taken into custody without incident and will be tried in an Iraqi court for the killing. They insisted that his arrest was not part of a campaign against Sadr’s organization, but a routine police action. Twelve other suspects are in custody in connection with the assassination and 12 additional warrants issued by an Iraqi court are outstanding, coalition officials said. They would not identify the other suspects.

After the Saturday morning arrest, Sadr supporters sped to Najaf and neighboring cities, where they began a series of massive demonstrations. About 5,000 marched on the Spanish base outside town Sunday morning, demanding Yacoubi’s release.

Coalition officials and protesters said the demonstration began peacefully, but at about noon, gunfire rang out from the middle of the crowd. Some demonstrators accused Spanish and Salvadoran troops of attacking first, but coalition and Spanish officials insisted that the troops were only returning fire from groups of assailants belonging to Sadr’s organization.

In Najaf’s hospitals, dozens of wounded Sadr followers said they had planned a nonviolent march. “We came to demonstrate according to Muqtader Sadr’s instructions that the demonstrations be peaceful,” said 21-year-old Muthana Abdul-Zehra, who was wounded in the arm. “All the participants were without firearms.”

Najaf’s police were nowhere to be seen Sunday afternoon. In the industrial area outside the military base, cartridges from assault rifles dotted the pavement.

In downtown Baghdad on Sunday afternoon, hundreds of Sadr supporters marched peacefully outside the massive coalition compound, calling for the release of Yacoubi and all other prisoners taken by the occupation troops.

“This is not a show of force,” one Sadr official there said. “This is demands.”

By late afternoon, when reports of the violence streamed in from Najaf, the marchers had vanished. Inside the coalition compound, officials condemned the violence and vowed a firm response.

Dan Senor, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, downplayed the clashes with Sadr’s supporters.

“I wouldn’t read much into it in terms of a broader confrontation. A majority of Iraqis are working with us,” he said before the deaths of the seven U.S. soldiers were announced. “These incidents are not insignificant, but it is important to keep in mind that they are the exception, they are not the rule in the current state of affairs in Iraq.”

Riccardi reported from Baghdad and Salman from Najaf. Times staff writer Alissa J. Rubin in Baghdad and Saad Fakhrildeen in Najaf contributed to this report.

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE ---

In stories after April 9, 2004, Shiite cleric Muqtader Sadr is correctly referred to as Muqtada Sadr.

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