BAGHDAD, 25 May 2008 — Lawmakers loyal to anti-US cleric Moqtada Sadr yesterday denounced the Iraqi government, accusing it of trying to crush the movement and warning of “black clouds” on the horizon for truces that have eased fighting between Sadr’s militia and security forces.

The Sadrist movement has hiked up its rhetoric against the government in recent days, raising concerns over the cease-fires in the southern city of Basra and Baghdad’s Sadr City district, the stronghold of Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia.

Still, the lawmakers and other Sadr officials said they are adhering to the truces. The cease-fires are crucial to Iraqi security forces’ sweeps in Basra and Sadr City, launched by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki to show his government can spread its authority in areas long dominated by armed groups.

The new tensions were sparked when Iraqi troops in Basra fired over the heads of Sadr followers who were trying to gather in a square for Friday prayers. Iraqi police recently banned Sadr gatherings in the square after a large cache of weapons was found nearby, police officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation.

Iraqi troops were deployed at the square to prevent the prayers. When those gathering refused to disperse, the police fired rounds over their heads, witnesses and police said. Iraqi police in Basra said one person was wounded in the shooting in a square in the northern part of the city. But Sadr officials contended that one person was killed and three wounded.

Sadrist lawmaker Hassan Al-Rubaie said Iraqi forces also raided a mosque in the Baghdad district of Amil ahead of prayers on Friday and arrested more than 350 worshippers.

“We see that there is a big nationwide conspiracy against Friday prayers. They (the government) fear it, because the Friday prayers will stand against the plots of our enemies,” Al-Rubaie told a press conference, referring to the anti-US rhetoric common in prayer sermons run by Sadr loyalists.

Stepped Up Sweep on Friday

Iraqi police officials said Iraqi forces were conducting a stepped up sweep on Friday against militiamen in Amil and the neighboring area of Bayaa in the southwest part of the capital. During the sweep, the forces cordoned off a cultural center where Sadrists were gathering to hold prayers and arrested some worshippers, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press. More than 100 people were arrested in the two districts, they said.

Fellow Sadrist lawmaker Aqeel Abdul-Hussein said Friday prayers were also prevented at Sadrist mosques in Baghdad’s Shiite district of Shaab and the southern city of Nasiriyah. The government is “moving forward in its project to liquidate all the national figures in a more savage way than the previous (Saddam Hussein) regime,” Abdul-Hussein told the news conference.

He said that “until now we are still committed to the terms of the (truce) agreement in Sadr City.” “If we find a clear seriousness from the government in implementing it, it could be applied in all provinces of Iraq,” he said. “But we see black clouds on the horizon, driven by the government to rain on the sons of the Sadr movement in the provinces.” A Sadr official in Basra also said the group was maintaining the truce despite Friday’s incident.

When Iraqi forces began their sweep in Basra in late March, it sparked heavy fighting with the Mehdi Army, which also launched a wave of violence across southern Iraq and in Sadr City. The fighting in Basra and the rest of the south ended with a truce, mediated by Iran, in mid-April.

Since then, Iraqi security forces have continued raids to arrest wanted figures among the many Shiite militias in Basra, and the troops appear to have greater control of the streets in many districts. Violence has been reduced considerably.

But violence continued for weeks afterward in Sadr City until a cease-fire last week. As part of the truce, some 10,000 Iraqi soldiers and police have deployed into the district, home to 2.5 million Shiites.

The Sadrist movement appears to have agreed to the truces to avert a full-scale government move to suppress the Mehdi Army, a fight that would likely cause heavy casualties and hurt Sadr’s longer term goal to keep his status as a major political player. Under the truce, the Mehdi Army keeps its light weapons in Sadr City.