Sadr Backers and Foes Clash in Najaf

Clashes erupted Wednesday between followers of a radical Shiite cleric and his opponents in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf, leaving at least six people dead and scores injured during a violent day throughout the country ahead of a National Assembly vote on a new constitution.

In the capital, up to 40 gunmen and suicide bombers staged a brazen daylight attack on police that left at least 15 dead and 56 injured.

Insurgents launched three attacks in and around the city of Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, that killed at least eight Iraqis, and raided the home of a police commando in Samarra, about 60 miles northwest of the capital, publicly executing one of his relatives before blowing up the house.

The violence came as sectarian and political tensions simmered on the eve of today’s likely vote in the transitional National Assembly on the draft constitution. Though the document is believed to have the support of a majority of the legislators, its calls for a degree of federalism and other provisions have drawn strong opposition from some Iraqis.

A U.S. military official in Baghdad, speaking Wednesday on condition of anonymity, said he expected more violence today as the assembly met.

“We believe that the enemy is continuing to try to influence the drafting of the constitution and is still intending to conduct some larger-scale operation in Baghdad and elsewhere associated with the release,” he told reporters.

Police closed off roads and imposed a curfew on Najaf, a shrine city about 100 miles south of Baghdad that has been quiet since clashes between U.S. troops and members of the Al Mahdi army, a militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, who has been critical of the draft constitution. By nightfall, only Iraqi troops roamed the normally lively streets of the Old City.

Sadr’s followers said they were victims of an unprovoked attack by rioters who tried to burn down the cleric’s Najaf office. Witnesses said demonstrators were protesting an increase in political activity in and around the Old City, which many Najaf residents and clerics consider holy. The two sides came to blows, with police intervening.

Sadr’s followers blamed a rival Shiite faction for the clashes and announced that they would pull their bloc of at least 20 lawmakers and three ministers out of the government. They said they had mobilized their militia, whose gun battles with U.S. troops a year ago traumatized the nation.

Sadr supporters are thirsting for revenge against the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the rival political party of Abdelaziz Hakim, which controls the Interior Ministry, said Fatah Sheik, a leader of Sadr’s parliamentary bloc.

“They are fishing in stale water in order to draw the Sadr movement into a conflict and remove them from the political process,” he said, referring to Hakim’s party.

One witness said that recent clashes also had broken out between Iraqi police and followers of Sadr in Amarah, about 190 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Sadr’s followers have been hinting that they might oppose the proposed constitution because it provides for a federal system that would diminish the power of the central government. But Baha Araji, another leader of the Sadr movement and a member of the constitutional committee, said Wednesday that he believed the clashes were unrelated to differences over the charter.

In a television interview Wednesday night, the leader of Hakim’s militia, Hadel Amari, condemned the attack on Sadr’s office and promised an investigation.

In Baghdad, shopkeepers and bystanders were among the casualties in the assault on police in the Jamiya neighborhood. The attackers, believed to be Sunni Arab insurgents, were armed with car bombs, rockets and machine guns, police said.

The apparent target, a visiting police chief from Samarra, survived. Iraqi police and soldiers as well as U.S. forces rushed into the area to head off further attacks. Most of the gunmen escaped, but two suspects carrying rocket-propelled-grenade launchers were arrested, a police official said.

Also in the capital, Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, the second on him in two days.

Near Baqubah, a provincial capital thought to be a stronghold for fighters loyal to Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi, gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims who were heading home after visiting holy sites in Iran, killing four. In Oudiam, 40 miles north of Baqubah, a roadside bomb killed four Iraqi engineers working for a cellphone company.

Sunni Arabs, who dominated the security forces and upper ranks of the Baghdad government under Saddam Hussein, are angered by elements of the draft constitution that they say give too much clout to Iraq’s provinces and regions.

While fighting the Sunni-led insurgency and protecting the fledgling government, U.S. and Iraqi forces must grapple with two upcoming elections, an Oct. 15 referendum on the constitution and balloting by Dec. 15 for a new parliament. A two-thirds majority of “no” votes in any three provinces would scuttle the constitution and trigger new national elections.

Sunni Arabs largely boycotted the Jan. 30 election but appear more enthusiastic about voting now. The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq issued a communique Wednesday calling on people in heavily Sunni provinces such as Al Tamim, Al Anbar, Nineveh and Salahuddin to register to vote.

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Times special correspondent Saad Fakhrildeen in Najaf and special correspondents in Baqubah and Samarra contributed to this report.