BAGHDAD (Reuters)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice backed Iraq's crackdown on militias in a visit on Sunday to Baghdad, where the worst fighting in weeks erupted after Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened all-out war.
Rockets blasted the fortified Green Zone compound where Rice met Iraqi officials and praised their month-old campaign against Sadr's followers.
She had harsh words for the reclusive cleric, who on the eve of Rice's visit vowed "open war" if the crackdown continues. Sadr has not appeared in public in Iraq in nearly a year.
"He is still living in Iran. I guess it's all out war for anybody but him," Rice told reporters. "His followers can go to their death and he will still be in Iran."
A military spokesman said U.S. forces had killed 20 fighters overnight in a series of gun battles and helicopter missile strikes in Sadr City, the east Baghdad slum that is a stronghold of Sadr's militia.
Arriving on an unannounced visit, Rice met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and said she wanted to support what she called a new political "centre" in Iraq that has backed Maliki's anti-militia campaign.
"It is indeed a moment of opportunity in Iraq thanks to the courageous decisions taken by the prime minister and a unified Iraqi leadership," Rice said in brief televised remarks with President Jalal Talabani after they held talks.
A rebellion by Sadr's Mahdi Army militia -- whose tens of thousands of black-masked fighters control the streets in many Shiite areas -- could abruptly end a period of lower violence at a time when some U.S. forces are starting to leave Iraq.
Sadr's threat dramatically raises the stakes in his confrontation with Maliki, who has threatened to ban Sadr's movement from political life unless he disbands his militia. |
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Worst fighting Maliki's crackdown has led over the past month to Iraq's worst fighting in nearly a year, spreading through the south and Shiite parts of Baghdad. Although fighting in the south has died down, the Baghdad clashes have continued unabated.
The crackdown has been backed by all parties across Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divide except the Sadrist movement.
Maliki's initial operation last month in the southern city of Basra went poorly, and U.S. commanders have acknowledged it was carried out hastily and badly planned.
Since then, however, the government forces have moved more carefully into Basra, and on Saturday they took control of the neighborhood that had been the Mahdi Army's main stronghold.
Sadr has pivoted back and forth between armed confrontation and peaceful politics throughout the five years since the fall of Saddam Hussein, while remaining hugely popular and staunchly hostile to the American presence he calls an "occupation".
He led two anti-American uprisings in 2004, but joined the political bloc that included Maliki and won parliamentary elections in 2005. Last year his followers quit the government for failing to demand an American withdrawal, but then Sadr abruptly declared a ceasefire, winning Washington's praise.
As his stance has changed, so has the response of American leaders. In 2004 they issued a warrant for his arrest, but more recently they praised his ceasefire and started referring to him with the respectful Arabic honorific "Sayyed".
Sadr's Mehdi Army has put up a fierce fight in Sadr City against Iraqi forces, who are backed by U.S. ground troops and air strikes.
Fighting in Sadr City has claimed hundreds of lives since last month. |
