* Claire Truscott, Richard Norton-Taylor and agencies
* guardian.co.uk,
* Thursday March 27 2008
One of southern Iraq's two main oil export pipelines has been severely damaged in a bomb attack, officials said today.
The bombing of the pipeline, seven miles south of Basra, came as clashes between Iraqi security forces and Shia fighters in the port city entered a third day.
"This morning, saboteurs blew up the pipeline transporting crude from [the] Zubair 1 [oil plant] by placing bombs beneath it," an oil company official said.
"Crude exports will be greatly affected because this is one of two main pipelines transporting crude to the southern terminals. We will lose about a third of crude exported through Basra."
The official said it would take three days to repair the damage if security could be provided for workers.
Iraq exported 1.54 million barrels of crude per day from Basra in February.
Today, regular explosions could be heard in the city as security forces continued a crackdown on Shia factions including Mahdi Army fighters loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Authorities imposed curfews across southern Iraq in an attempt to halt the spread of violence.S
Yesterday, the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, gave Shia militia and other gunmen a 72-hour deadline to surrender their weapons.
As the US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad came under renewed attack from rockets and mortars, US officials insisted members of the Mahdi Army were not being singled out in the Basra crackdown.
They blamed Iranian-backed rogue militia elements for the violence in Basra and Baghdad, in which more than 100 people have been killed, according to Iraqi officials and news agency reports.
British commanders told the Guardian that "renegade groups" and criminal gangs were responsible for the violence.
The 4,100 British troops based at Basra airport are not taking part in the crackdown, although Iraqi helicopters have been refuelled at the airport.
Sadr was reported to have called for talks to end the fighting between government forces and his followers.
A senior aide, Luwaa Sumaisem, told Reuters that the truce the cleric had agreed last August was still in place.
Today, Sadr's followers again took to the streets to demonstrate against Maliki's government, forcing schools, universities and shops to close, news agencies said.
Shia militia have also been fighting US and Iraqi forces in the Shia Baghdad neighbourhoods of al-Baiyaa, Shaab and Kazimiyah, as well as Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad.
Hundreds of Sadr supporters were reported to have taken to the streets yesterday in Baghdad and Kerbala, demanding that the government stop military operations in Basra and withdraw all security forces.
Police said at least 10 people, including a baby girl, were killed and 31 wounded in clashes in Kut, 105 miles south of Baghdad.
Iraq implodes as Shia fights Shia
Another tragedy as the Shia majority turn on each other
By Patrick Cockburn
Thursday, 27 March 2008
A new civil war is threatening to explode in Iraq as American-backed Iraqi government forces fight Shia militiamen for control of Basra and parts of Baghdad.
Heavy fighting engulfed Iraq's two largest cities and spread to other towns yesterday as the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, gave fighters of the Mehdi Army, led by the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, 72 hours to surrender their weapons.
The gun battles between soldiers and militiamen, who are all Shia Muslims, show that Iraq's majority Shia community – which replaced Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime – is splitting apart for the first time.
Mr Sadr's followers believe the government is trying to eliminate them before elections in southern Iraq later this year, which they are expected to win.
Mortars and rockets launched from Mehdi Army-controlled districts of Baghdad struck the Green Zone, the seat of American power in Iraq, for the third day yesterday, seriously wounding three Americans. Two rockets hit the parking lot of the Iraqi cabinet. The mixed area of al-Mansur in west Baghdad, where shops had begun to reopen in recent months, was deserted yesterday as Mehdi Army fighters were rumoured among local people to be moving in from the nearby Shia stronghold of Washash. "We expect an attack by the Shia in spite of the Americans being spread over Sunni districts to defend them," said a Sunni resident.
Forty people have been killed and at least 200 injured in Basra in the last two days of violence. In the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad, 11 people were killed and 18 injured yesterday by a US air strike called in support of Iraqi forces following street battles with Shia militia members in the city's Thawra neighbourhood. In Baghdad, 14 have been killed and 140 wounded.
The supporters of Mr Sadr, who form the largest political movement in Iraq, blame the Americans for giving the go-ahead for Mr Maliki's offensive against them and supporting it with helicopters and bomber aircraft. US troops have sealed off Sadr City, the close-packed slum in the capital with a population that is the main bastion of the Sadrists, while the Mehdi Army has taken over its streets, establishing checkpoints, each manned by about 20 heavily armed men. It is unlikely that the militiamen in Basra will surrender as demanded by the government. Sadiq al-Rikabi, an adviser to Mr Maliki, said those who kept their weapons would be arrested. "Any gunman who does not do that within three days will be an outlaw."
Streets were empty in Basra and Baghdad as people stayed at home to avoid the fighting. The Mehdi Army is enforcing a strike in Baghdad with mosques calling for the closure of shops, businesses and schools.
In the Shia city of Kut, on the Tigris south of Baghdad, local residents say that black-clad Mehdi Army militiamen have taken over five districts and expelled the police.
At the same time, Mr Sadr is clearly eager to continue the truce which he declared on 29 August last year after bloody clashes in Kerbala with Iraqi police controlled by the rival Shia political movement, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and their well-organised militia, the Badr organisation.
He renewed this ceasefire in February, saying he wanted to purge its ranks of criminals. "The freeze that Sadr has ordered is still ongoing," said one of his chief lieutenants, Luwaa Smaism.
Mr Sadr has sought to avoid an all-out military confrontation with American troops or Badr backed by American forces since he fought two ferocious battles for Najaf against US marines in 2004.
Mr Sadr has sent emissaries to Mr Maliki asking him to remove his troops, numbering some 15,000 men from Basra, and to resolve problems peacefully. But his aides say there will be no talks until the Iraqi army reinforcements are withdrawn. The offer of talks is in keeping with Mr Sadr's past behaviour, which is to appear conciliatory but in practice to make few real concessions. The US is claiming that the Sadrists are not being singled out, only Iran-supported militia factions, but this will find few believers in Iraq.
"This is not a battle against the [Mehdi Army] nor is it a proxy war between the United States and Iran," said a US military spokesman, Major General Kevin Bergner. "It is [the] government of Iraq taking the necessary action to deal with criminals on the streets."
The Sunni population is pleased to see the government and the Americans attacking the Mehdi Army, which they see as a Shia death squad. "Before, the Shia were arresting and killing us and forcing us to leave Iraq for Jordan and Syria where we lived in misery," said Osama Sabr, a Sunni in west Baghdad.
The fighting is threatening to disrupt Iraq's oil production, most of which comes from the Basra area, because workers in the oilfields dare not leave their homes.
The militia
The Mehdi Army
Armed wing of the Sadr movement. Muqtada al-Sadr's militia is divided, with one wing supporting the radical cleric's ceasefire while another has rejected it and continued attacks on Iraqi government forces and the British base at Basra aiport.
The Badr Brigade
Armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. The Badr Brigade has been involved in numerous clashes with the Mehdi Army and appears not to be the target of the current offensive by the Iraqi government forces. The group has organised "spontaneous" demonstrations against General Mohan and General Jalil.
The Fadhila
A political party and armed group with a localised powerbase. The governor of Basra is a member of the party, and it controls a significant proportion of the region's oil supply.
Secret Cells
Said to be armed and trained by Iran and allegedly carrying out attacks ordered by Tehran.
President Bush: Iraq violence is a 'positive moment'
President Bush gave warning yesterday that Iraq’s “fragile situation” required the US to maintain a strong military presence there, even as he defended the withdrawal of British troops from Basra, the scene of heavy fighting in recent days.
In an interview with The Times, he backed the Iraqi Government’s decision to “respond forcefully” to the spiralling violence by “criminal elements” and Shia extremists in Basra. “It was a very positive moment in the development of a sovereign nation that is willing to take on elements that believe they are beyond the law,” the President said.
Asked if British troops had retreated to the relative safety of the Basra airbase too hastily last year, Mr Bush said that the pullback had been “based upon success” in quelling violence, adding that he remained grateful for the contribution made by British Forces from “day one” of the war.
Mr Bush, who had spent the morning being briefed on Iraq by the Pentagon before an imminent announcement on US troop levels, said that despite “substantial gains” since the US military surge began last year, much work was needed to “maintain the success we’ve had”.
There has been speculation that he plans to hold the current level of troops at about 140,000 through the autumn and possibly beyond in the hope he can bind in his successor — be it a Democratic or Republican president — to his Iraq strategy.
Mr Bush insisted yesterday that decisions would not be made by those who “scream the loudest” in calling for troops to come home. Instead, in his interview with four international journalists, including The Times, he said: “I understand people here want us to leave, regardless of the situation, but that will not happen so long as I’m Commander-In-Chief.”
His comments came before a visit next week to Eastern Europe and the final Nato summit of his presidency, being held in Bucharest. Despite being hobbled by unpopularity abroad and at home — where attention is focused on the race to succeed him — Mr Bush appears determined to shape his legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The President gave a glimpse of some of the resentment felt by Washington towards other Nato allies whom he said needed to be “encouraged” to take obligations in Afghanistan seriously. The definition of the summit’s success, he added, would be to ensure Nato stayed relevant.
But he heaped praise on President Sarkozy of France, who has announced his intention to send another 1,000 troops to the Afghan battlefields. It was notable, perhaps, that he avoided expressing similar sentiments about Gordon Brown after a period, since Tony Blair’s departure from Downing Street, in which differences of tone, if not substance, have emerged between Britain and the US.
Asked if Mr Sarkozy now represented America’s most important bilateral partner, Mr Bush replied that the relationship with Britain was “never as special” as during times of war, before citing the alliance between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as “the current relationship — the more modern relationship — between Tony Blair and myself”.
He added: “It’s going to be hard for any nation to trump the United Kingdom as our greatest ally. Having said that, no question that the relationship \ is changing for the better.” President Sarkozy — whom he described as a “highly energetic and decisive” leader — deserved credit, he said, for not being “interested in creating divisions in the transatlantic relationship”.
France’s offer of an additional 1,000 troops “pretty much ensured” next week’s summit would be a success, he said, adding that the British, French and Canadian troops who “will be in harm’s way” represented a strong statement that Nato was ready to rise to the challenge in Afghanistan.
Mr Bush ended the interview by announcing that he was accepting an invitation to meet President Putin of Russia after the Nato summit at the Crimean resort of Sochi. It will be the last opportunity for talks between the two leaders before Dmitri Medvedev becomes president in May.
He said that matters to be discussed would include the dispute over the proposed American missile defence system to be based in Central Europe, as well as measures to counter Iran’s uranium enrichment programme, which Washington still fears may lead to Tehran acquiring nuclear weapons.
Moscow remains vehemently opposed to the missile defence system, fearing it will be used to undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrent. Mr Bush said yesterday that it would take only a fraction of Russia’s enormous arsenal to destroy the system and insisted once more that it was designed to protect Europe against a potential attack from the Middle East.
Recent talks in Moscow between Russian officials and Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, and Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, brought no immediate breakthrough.
But the President said: “Hopefully we could advance our dialogue so that at some point in time we could reach agreement on this important matter. A lot of people in Europe will heave a sigh of relief if we are able to reach an accord on missile defence.”
Mr Bush said that he looked forward to meeting Mr Medvedev for face-to-face talks and had been impressed by his comments on the need for transparency and the rule of law.
BAGHDAD — An assault by thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police officers to regain control of the southern port city of Basra stalled Wednesday as Shiite militiamen in the Mahdi Army fought daylong hit-and-run battles and refused to withdraw from the neighborhoods that form their base of power there.
American officials have presented the Iraqi Army’s attempts to secure the port city as an example of its ability to carry out a major operation against the insurgency on its own. A failure there would be a serious embarrassment for the Iraqi government and for the army, as well as for American forces eager to demonstrate that the Iraqi units they have trained can fight effectively on their own.
During a briefing in Baghdad on Wednesday, a British military official said that of the nearly 30,000 Iraqi security forces involved in the assault, almost 16,000 were Basra police forces, which have long been suspected of being infiltrated by the same militias the assault was intended to root out.
The operation is a significant political test for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who traveled to Basra to oversee the beginning of the assault. It is also a gamble for both the Iraqi and American governments. The Americans distrust the renegade cleric Moktada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, who consider the Americans occupiers.
The dominant Shiite groups in Mr. Maliki’s government are political and military rivals of Mr. Sadr, and Mr. Maliki is freer now to move against him because Mr. Sadr’s party is no longer a crucial part of his coalition.
But if the Mahdi Army breaks completely with the cease-fire that has helped to tamp down attacks in Iraq during the past year, there is a risk of replaying 2004, when the militia fought intense battles with American forces that destabilized the entire country and ushered in years of escalating violence. Renewed attacks, in turn, would make it more difficult to begin sending home large numbers of American troops.
Mr. Maliki issued an ultimatum on Wednesday for Shiite militias in Basra to put down their weapons within 72 hours. Yet battles continued, killing at least 40 people and wounding 200 others, hospital officials said.
Though American and Iraqi officials have insisted that the operation was not singling out a particular group, fighting appeared to focus on Mahdi-controlled neighborhoods. In fact, some witnesses said, neighborhoods controlled by rival political groups seemed to be giving government forces safe passage, as if they were helping them to strike at the Mahdi Army.
Even so, the Mahdi fighters seemed to hold their ground. Witnesses said that from the worn, closely packed brick buildings of one Mahdi stronghold, the Hayaniya neighborhood, Mahdi fighters fired mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, automatic weapons and sniper rifles at seemingly helpless Iraqi Army units pinned on a main road outside, their armored vehicles unable to enter the narrow streets.
The assault has also sparked continuing violence by outraged Mahdi commanders in other major cities, including Baghdad, where the sprawling urban slum called Sadr City forms the militia’s power center in Iraq.
Most casualties in Basra were civilians caught in the cross-fire, hospital officials said. The heaviest fighting outside Basra appeared to be taking place in Kut, where officials said 10 people had been killed and 31 wounded, mostly by mortar shells.
There were also deadly clashes in Diwaniya, Hilla and Amara, and the booms of rocket fire rattled Baghdad all day. The American military said in a statement that 16 rockets had been fired into the fortified Green Zone alone, wounding one American soldier, two American civilians and an Iraqi Army soldier.
But it was in Basra where the fighting was by far the most intense, and terrified residents huddled inside their houses for a second day because of a curfew and because anyone on the streets risked being killed.
A Basra newspaper editor who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisals said most residents despised the Mahdi Army and welcomed the assault. But he said it was obvious that the central government had not consulted with local commanders in planning the assault, citing the inability of the armored vehicles to fit through city streets. But support for the assault already seems to be eroding in several neighborhoods, as militiamen retained control of their strongholds and residents were confined in their homes. “The Mahdi Army is still controlling most of these places,” the editor said. “The result is negative.”
Local residents said the southern sections of Basra, mostly poor and heavily populated, were still controlled by the Mahdi Army on Wednesday night. One Mahdi commander bragged by telephone that after Iraqi armored vehicles failed to gain access to his neighborhood, the Army units fled and his fighters spray-painted Koranic slogans on the vehicles. The claim could not be independently verified.
Both Mahdi and Iraqi Army officers agreed that some of the heaviest fighting took place in the western Basra neighborhood of Hayaniya, where fighters attacked the Iraqi forces and then retreated into the neighborhood.
Col. Abbas al-Tamimi, media officer for the 14th Iraqi Army Division operating in the city, said he expected the fighting to escalate. “The gunmen have heavier and more sophisticated weapons than we have,” he said.
Although Basra is dominated by Shiite political parties and their militias, the landscape is one of enormous complexity. The Fadhila party, which split from Mr. Sadr’s party years ago, dominates the provincial council. But there is also substantial representation by the Dawa Movement and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. The movement, previously known as Sciri, has changed its name and is now referred to as ISCI.
Mr. Sadr’s party has no council seats, having boycotted the elections, but its Mahdi Army is the most feared armed group on the streets. Still, it shares influence with the Supreme Council’s armed wing, called the Badr Organization, the Fadhila militia and others.
The division of the spoils among the armed groups is often quite specific. Fadhila controls the electricity sector and shares power with the Mahdi at the ports; Dawa and Fadhila have a strong grip in the lucrative southern oil operations, and a different branch of Dawa — the one to which Mr. Maliki belongs — holds sway at the Basra airport.
In practice, the rising power and aggressive tactics have generally turned Fadhila and the Supreme Council against the Mahdi — a politically significant fact for Mr. Maliki, whose coalition depends heavily on the Supreme Council’s support.
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