IRAQ: Baghdad Shi'ites protest "US siege" of stronghold

Shops were shut and many workers stayed at home on Tuesday (October 31) in the Baghdad Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City after a local militia leader ordered protests at what he called a U.S. military "siege" of the sprawling slum suburb. For the past week, Iraqi and U.S. troops have been manning checkpoints and mounting raids in the area, home to some two million people, in the hunt for an American soldier of Iraqi origin who was kidnapped in central Baghdad last Monday. "The Sadr office has ordered all government employees to stay at home and shops to close in protest at the U.S. siege of Sadr City," said Mohammed al-Kaabi, a spokesman for the office of Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr. Reuters journalists in the area said there were few cars on the streets and most shops and business had not opened, although some bakeries selling bread and essential items. Local residents complained of the U.S. "military siege", said that it has caused a deterioration of the living and health conditions and a hike in prices. "Security clampdown or the security siege imposed by the U.S. forces on the Sadr City has caused a deterioration in health condition and the psychological status and a deterioration in public services. There was a blast in Sadr City yesterday and they blocked the road even in front of ambulances, which were evacuating the wounded," said La'eem Jabbar Ali, a resident of the city who has two relatives killed in Monday's attack. "It is a peaceful city, there are no Al Qaeda members here and no terrorists. Why do they impose this siege on us? It has caused a hike in prices. So, we staged this protest to lift the siege by peaceful means and we will go on until the siege is lifted and we urge the government to support us," said another resident. The U.S. military said Iraqi special forces detained three people in Sadr City early on Tuesday. Sadr, a powerful, anti-American figure within the Shi'ite bloc that dominates Iraq's government, commands the Mehdi Army. It is a nationwide movement that controls police and much else in Sadr City and which is blamed by the U.S. military and minority Sunni leaders for kidnappings and death squad killings. Other groups, described by U.S. and Iraqi officials as "rogue" Mehdi Army elements not under Sadr's control, are also active there. Among these is a warlord known as Abu Deraa, who Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said was the target of an abortive U.S. raid in Sadr City last week that left 10 people dead. Maliki was angered by the raid, which he said failed to capture Abu Deraa. It was one of several causes of friction between his government and Washington, which is pressing him to disband militias like the Mehdi Army, led by fellow Shi'ites. The military has not identified the missing soldier, whom it has described as a "linguist", but Maliki told Reuters last week his name was Ahmed al-Taie and that he was snatched in the commercial Karrada district during a visit to relatives. The New York Times on Monday quoted people who named Taie and said they were his relatives. They believed the kidnappers were from the Mehdi Army. They told the paper Taie had married a fellow Sunni Muslim this year and visited her frequently. U.S. military regulations forbid troops from marrying local people in areas of conflict.

ITN Source | October 31, 2006

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