07 January 2006
Thousands of angry Shiites rallied Friday in Baghdad's Sadr City slum against a spree of attacks that killed almost 200 people and to protest what they claim was American backing for Sunni Arabs politicians who have supported insurgent groups. But senior Shiite religious and political leaders urged restraint, telling followers to place their faith in the next government, slowly emerging from the December 15 election and set to be dominated by Shiite Islamists.
The demonstrators chanted slogans against U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and moderate Sunni Arab leaders such as Adnan al-Dulaimi, but reserved most of their ire for hard-liners such as Saleh al-Mutlaq, head of the Sunni Arab National Dialogue Front - who have complained of widespread fraud during the December 15 elections.
"We're going to crush Saleh al-Mutlaq with our slippers," they chanted as they marched, many armed with automatic weapons. "No, no to Zalmay. No, no to terrorism."
They were referring to recent criticism by Khalilzad and U.S. commanders of policing, interrogation and detention methods used by Iraq's fledgling security services, which are controlled by Shiite-led ministries.
They also protesting what they considered was American support for some Sunnis who have in the past either supported, or at least not condemned insurgent groups.
The march, officially organized by non-governmental organizations, came a day twin suicide attacks killed at least 120 people. Violence Wednesday killed 53 people.
On Thursday, the powerful Supreme Council of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a Shiite religious party, lashed out at the U.S.-led coalition. SCIRI charged that security services were being pressed to keep their gloves on in the fight against Sunni insurgents.
Iraq's more senior clergy were more restrained, urging worshippers at Friday prayers not to rise to the bait of the bombers.
"The civil war they are looking for will not happen," said Ali al-Fatlawi, a representative of the country's most senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
"Iraqi people should be more careful, more vigilant and should shun anything that promotes strife," he told thousands of worshippers inside the Imam Hussein shrine.
But Hadi al-Ameri, head of the Badr Brigades, the loosely organized militia allied to SCIRI, questioned how long political leaders could keep their angry supporters in check.
"People are about to explode," he told Reuters. "We have warned the British and American ambassadors in Iraq that if the Shiites get out of control they should not blame us."
"Shiite popular opinion has remained obedient to the clergy and its leaders, but the question is, for how long?" he said. "People are not stupid. They're telling us, 'If you can't protect us, then let us protect ourselves.'"
At Friday prayers at the Umm al-Qura mosque, the headquarters of the Sunni Committee of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Ali Khodir al-Zand blamed foreign insurgents for Thursday's bloodshed and said security must improve.
"The miserable security situation we are living now is because of the absence of a good reliable army," he said.
Hoping to better assess the situation on the ground following a landmark election last month, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made an unannounced trip to the southern city of Basra, where British troops are based.
Straw, who had been in Beirut on a Middle East tour, was due to meet Iraqi politicians, who are still awaiting the elections' results three weeks after they were held, the spokesman said, declining to give a more detailed itinerary for security reasons.
Highlighting the ongoing violence, one police commando was killed and three injured in a suicide car bomb attack against a police checkpoint in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Zafaraniyya, the Interior Ministry said. Some 10 unidentified bodies, all shot to death, were also discovered in the Iraqi capital. - Agencies
