.We're fighting for survival, says Mahdi army commander
A senior commander in the Mahdi army said today the militia was fighting a battle for survival in Basra against a rival Shia faction seeking to obliterate it ahead of September elections.
Fighting broke out in Basra on Tuesday when Iraqi government forces launched an offensive against Shia militia in the city. Overnight, US jets carried out air strikes in support of Iraqi forces in at least two locations.
Shiek Ali al-Sauidi, a prominent member of the Moqtada al-Sadr-led movement in Basra, said his men were being targeted not by the Iraqi government but by government militias loyal to the rival Supreme Islamic Council faction.
"They are a executing a very well drawn plan. They are trying to exterminate the Sadrists and cut and isolate the movement before the September local elections," he said in a telephone interview with the Guardian.
"The Sadrists are the only Shia resistance movement against the occupiers and we have wide popularity. We are going through a battle of existence we will fight to the end. We either survive this or we are finished."
The fighting has spread to Baghdad and other cities in Iraq, claiming the lives of at least 200 people since Tuesday. In the capital, a US helicopter fired a missile into the Sadr City district, while rocket and mortar attacks killed two guards outside the Iraqi vice president's office, inside the Green Zone. Reuters reported that in Nassiriya, Mahdi army fighters loyal to Sadr had taken over the city centre.
Sauidi said the Mahdi army was well equipped for the fight ahead. "We have captured lots of their vehicles, machine guns and mortars. We have new RPGs we got from their supply trucks. Our fighters know how to use the side streets as their battle space."
As fighting between the Shia Mahdi army and Shia Iraqi soldiers continued, witnesses described the scenes in Basra.
A resident of the poor neighbourhood of Hayaniya said: "The situation is very difficult in Basra, all the side streets are controlled by the Mahdi army. Even if the army has lots of tanks, the Mahdi fighters are controlling the streets. The fighters are driving in captured Iraqi Humvees and waving new guns."
Said Abu Saleh, 30, said: "Yesterday we were in the street and saw a black car coming. They stopped and two men opened the trunk. They dragged out an Iraqi soldier and threw him in the street and they drove away.
"He was a young soldier dressed in a military uniform, he had a bullet hole in his head and there was blood on his face. Even his boots were covered with blood.
"We found his ID card, his name was Ahmad Raad el Helfy. We went through his mobile phone and found a number marked 'mum', we dialled and an old women answered. I told her that her son had died and that she was a mother of martyr she started screaming and wailing."
Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, today extended his deadline for Shia militants to hand over their weapons by more than a week and offered cash to those who complied. "All those who have heavy and intermediate weapons are to deliver them to security sites and they will be rewarded financially. This will start from March 28 to April 8," he said.
Sadr, who helped Maliki to power after an election in 2005 but later broke away from him, has called for talks with the government. Maliki has vowed to battle what he calls criminal gangs in Basra "to the end".
The fighting is a test of Maliki's ability to prove Iraqi forces can stand on their own and allow US and UK forces to withdraw. British combat troops – who last year handed over responsibility for security in Basra province to Iraqis – have remained in their base at Basra airport during the upsurge in violence.
Guardian
Fighting broke out in Basra on Tuesday when Iraqi government forces launched an offensive against Shia militia in the city. Overnight, US jets carried out air strikes in support of Iraqi forces in at least two locations.
Shiek Ali al-Sauidi, a prominent member of the Moqtada al-Sadr-led movement in Basra, said his men were being targeted not by the Iraqi government but by government militias loyal to the rival Supreme Islamic Council faction.
"They are a executing a very well drawn plan. They are trying to exterminate the Sadrists and cut and isolate the movement before the September local elections," he said in a telephone interview with the Guardian.
"The Sadrists are the only Shia resistance movement against the occupiers and we have wide popularity. We are going through a battle of existence we will fight to the end. We either survive this or we are finished."
The fighting has spread to Baghdad and other cities in Iraq, claiming the lives of at least 200 people since Tuesday. In the capital, a US helicopter fired a missile into the Sadr City district, while rocket and mortar attacks killed two guards outside the Iraqi vice president's office, inside the Green Zone. Reuters reported that in Nassiriya, Mahdi army fighters loyal to Sadr had taken over the city centre.
Sauidi said the Mahdi army was well equipped for the fight ahead. "We have captured lots of their vehicles, machine guns and mortars. We have new RPGs we got from their supply trucks. Our fighters know how to use the side streets as their battle space."
As fighting between the Shia Mahdi army and Shia Iraqi soldiers continued, witnesses described the scenes in Basra.
A resident of the poor neighbourhood of Hayaniya said: "The situation is very difficult in Basra, all the side streets are controlled by the Mahdi army. Even if the army has lots of tanks, the Mahdi fighters are controlling the streets. The fighters are driving in captured Iraqi Humvees and waving new guns."
Said Abu Saleh, 30, said: "Yesterday we were in the street and saw a black car coming. They stopped and two men opened the trunk. They dragged out an Iraqi soldier and threw him in the street and they drove away.
"He was a young soldier dressed in a military uniform, he had a bullet hole in his head and there was blood on his face. Even his boots were covered with blood.
"We found his ID card, his name was Ahmad Raad el Helfy. We went through his mobile phone and found a number marked 'mum', we dialled and an old women answered. I told her that her son had died and that she was a mother of martyr she started screaming and wailing."
Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, today extended his deadline for Shia militants to hand over their weapons by more than a week and offered cash to those who complied. "All those who have heavy and intermediate weapons are to deliver them to security sites and they will be rewarded financially. This will start from March 28 to April 8," he said.
Sadr, who helped Maliki to power after an election in 2005 but later broke away from him, has called for talks with the government. Maliki has vowed to battle what he calls criminal gangs in Basra "to the end".
The fighting is a test of Maliki's ability to prove Iraqi forces can stand on their own and allow US and UK forces to withdraw. British combat troops – who last year handed over responsibility for security in Basra province to Iraqis – have remained in their base at Basra airport during the upsurge in violence.
Guardian
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