Armed militiamen took to the streets of Basra last night after the local leader of the Mahdi Army was killed in a British-Iraqi operation.

As tension rose in Iraq’s second city, British forces prepared for a backlash from supporters of the powerful Shia militia, which is loyal to Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr.

The firebrand cleric made his first public appearance for several months to denounce the continued occupation of Iraq and to urge an end to the fighting between his followers and Iraqi security forces.

Within hours of his address, Iraqi special forces shot dead Wissam al-Waili, also known as Abu Qadir, along with two other men as they left one of Hojatoleslam al-Sadr’s offices in a car, a British military spokesman said. The Mahdi Army’s Basra chieftain had been trying to resist arrest, Major David Gell added.

As news of Abu Qadir’s death spread around the city, about 200 British soldiers taking part in the mission were attacked with smalls arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades as they pulled out of the city and headed back to base. They returned fire, killing at least one militia member. A British soldier was also injured.

Despite denials that British troops were involved in the attempted arrest, the Mahdi Army claimed that British forces had hit Abu Qadur’s car with a rocket. He left the vehicle but was killed when a second rocket struck him, it alleged.

Without an obvious British presence on the streets, the Mahdi Army was able to roam freely around Basra, according to a Times correspondent on the ground. Militiamen cut off many of the roads, and families remained inside.

Major Gell said that British forces were preparing for possible reprisal attacks.

“Certainly on previous occasions when we have had operations there has been something of a backlash, but we will be prepared for that,” he said.

Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment and the 4th Battalion The Rifles threw a cordon around Abu Qadir’s car as the Iraqi forces went in, according to Maj Gell. The Mahdi Army commander was wanted for political assassinations, gun smuggling and attacks on British troops.

Challenger 2 tanks, Warrior and Bulldog armoured vehicles supported the infantry units.

The shootings happened at about 3.30pm just hours after Hojatoleslam al-Sadr made his first public appearance for several months, delivering an antiAmerican sermon to thousands of followers at a mosque in Kufa, south of Baghdad. He reiterated his demands that US troops leave Iraq and condemned fighting between his Mahdi Army and Iraqi forces. The cleric also appeared to strike a conciliatory chord with fellow Iraqis, both Sunni and Christian.

“No, no to the unjust! No, no to America! No, no to colonialism! No, no to Israel! No, no to Satan,” he declared in his address to thousands of adoring supporters.

“I say to our Sunni brothers in Iraq that we are brothers and the occupier shall not divide us. They are welcome and we are ready to cooperate with them in all fields. This is my hand I stretch towards them.”

His public appearance was the first since American commanders claimed that he had fled to Iran at the beginning of a US security clampdown in February.

The 33-year-old cleric is believed to be honing plans to consolidate political gains and foster ties with Iran – and possibly trying to take advantage of the absence of a major rival, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq, who recently had lung cancer diagnosed and went to Tehran for treatment.

Hussain Ali, 27, a Mahdi Army member, said: “His appearance is proof for the occupiers that he wasn’t in Iran.”

Hojatoleslam al-Sadr is clearly a force to be reckoned with despite pulling his six ministers out of the Government last month in protest at the refusal of Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, to set a timetable for a US troop withdrawal.

Gordon Brown is due to go to Iraq soon to make his own assessment of security conditions in southern Iraq, where Britain still has about 7,000 troops. He will ask the military when troop reductions can begin.

DEATH SQUADS

The US military regards the Mahdi Army as a key threat to peace in Iraq, often blaming it for the death squads that foment sectarian tension Formed in 2003, the militia gained much of its strength after the bombing of the sacred Samarra shrine in February 2006 The movement has splintered since its creation by Moqtada al-Sadr, but he still controls a significant proportion of its militia In 2004 a previous al-Sadr representative in Basra was blamed for a rise in violence after he offered cash for the killing of British troops

Source: Globalsecurity.org, agencies

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