U.S.-Iraqi raids target Sadr militiamen

Iraqi and coalition forces rolled into Diwaniya before dawn Friday to rout elements of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Al Mahdi militia that had fled the Baghdad security crackdown and sparked an increase in violence in regions south of the capital.

U.S. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl said the troops faced “steady resistance through the day” from Sadr’s militiamen. The U.S. troops had been called down from Baghdad to reinforce the Iraqi army’s 8th Division and the region’s Polish-led soldiers.

Frightened residents stayed inside and a curfew was imposed on the city, about 95 miles south of Baghdad, as the combined forces raided neighborhoods believed to be militia strongholds, officials said.

Also Friday, a fuel tanker packed with explosives and chlorine gas was detonated outside a police station in Ramadi, capital of Al Anbar, a Sunni-majority province. Casualty counts varied, with provincial security official Col. Tariq Yousef saying 22 people were killed, 37 wounded and 40 people treated for chlorine exposure. However, U.S. Marines spokesman 2nd Lt. Richard Hollenbeck said the suicide attack killed 12 people and wounded 43.

Groups linked to Al Qaeda have used at least eight chlorine bombs in suicide attacks against Sunni Arab tribes opposing their domination in Al Anbar, a vast desert area west of Baghdad that borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

In Diwaniya, troops found a building used for making armor-piercing bombs -- called explosively formed projectiles -- that the U.S. military says have killed at least 170 Americans since mid-2004. Four bombs and others in varying stages of production were found, the military said.

Three insurgents were killed, 27 detained and six wounded in the fighting, the military said. Two Iraqi soldiers and one coalition soldier were wounded. The coalition soldier’s nationality was not released.

Sadr has called on his followers to respect the Baghdad security plan and silence their guns, but they have been blamed for increased violence south of the capital.

The Diwaniya offensive comes after a campaign of assassinations in the city.

“Diwaniya has been witnessing assassinations for weeks, including teachers, military men, policemen and even among the Sadr movement,” said Nassar Rubaie, a lawmaker close to Sadr. “One of our brothers who was working in the Sadr bureau was assassinated too.”

Sadr loyalists have blamed the ousted Baath Party for the recent killings. However, the Polish general in charge of Diwaniya said the bloodshed stemmed from the intense competition among Shiite political parties. Friction is rising between Sadr loyalists and the province’s ruling party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Pawel Lamla said recently.

Supporters of the Supreme Council, or SCIRI, have accused Sadr loyalists of involvement in the killings, charges that the group has denied.

The two parties are preparing for elections tentatively set for this year. SCIRI controls the Qadisiya provincial council, but Sadr forces are popular on the streets and have infiltrated the police, Lamla said. That has transformed Diwaniya into a powder keg, he said.

Lamla said more Al Mahdi fighters had arrived in Diwaniya and violence had increased since the Baghdad security plan started Feb. 13. He compared parts of Diwaniya to Sadr City, an Al Mahdi stronghold in northeastern Baghdad.

Diwaniya’s governor, Dhia Shubbar, denied any tensions between his party and Sadr loyalists.

Haydar Natiq, head of the Sadr office in Diwaniya, accused U.S. and Iraqi troops of blocking ambulances and of killing eight civilians. He denied that Al Mahdi militiamen had joined the fighting Friday and insisted the Americans were met only with “honorable resistance.” By afternoon, clashes had mostly stopped, he said.

A man named Jassim, a Sadr loyalist at the office, said Al Mahdi fighters were taunted by troops entering the city from three directions with tanks and helicopters.

“In some American vehicles, somebody who speaks Arabic using a loudspeaker challenged the gunmen,” calling them cowards, he said.

It was unclear how Friday’s violence would affect Baghdad, where Shiites, hit by a steady barrage of car bombs in recent weeks, have begun to wonder whether they were better off when Sadr fighters operated with little restraint.

“Some insurgents have become very bold,” said lawmaker Haidar Abadi, a member of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s Islamic Dawa Party. “Now I can see people wonder if the clampdown on the militias is a good idea.”

Sadr’s followers have been accused of involvement in death squads that have targeted Sunnis since the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra in February 2006.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military Friday reported the death of one soldier and the injury of another in an attack Thursday near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. Early today, the military said an explosively formed projectile killed one soldier on patrol Friday in eastern Baghdad and wounded four more. The number of American military personnel killed in the war is 3,268, adding today’s announcement to the total listed on icasualties.org.

The U.S. denied that a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross visiting five detained Iranians included an Iranian national.

“One of the two committees contained an individual who speaks Farsi and lived in Iran, but he is a British citizen by birth,” Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said in a statement.

An investigative committee formed by Maliki condemned a raid last month on the Interior Ministry’s intelligence offices in the southern city of Basra.

Iraqi special forces, accompanied by British troops, raided the offices March 4 and said they found 30 people who bore signs of torture.

A statement from the prime minister’s office said the British and U.S. forces should apologize and warned they could not arrest Iraqi security forces without a warrant.

Iraqi special forces are under the operational command of U.S.-led coalition troops.

The British military in Basra said they had no immediate comment on the committee’s findings.

In a sign of the rifts emerging among Sunni Arab insurgent groups, the Islamic Army called on Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to rein in the movement’s branch in Iraq.

The statement, posted on the Internet, said Al Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate had crossed a line with the killing of 30 insurgents in recent months.

ned.parker@latimes.com

Times staff writers Raheem Salman, Saif Hameed, Wail Alhafith and Said Rifai contributed to this report.