Heeding the Call Of The Cleric

A day with al-Sadr's faithful reveals why the rebel leader's popularity is growing

Monday, May. 31, 2004

From
Time by PAUL QUINN-JUDGE

Is this guy living under a rock or something? Maybe he has spent too much time with Sadr's "faithful". Otherwise how does he explain this?

More calls for Sadr to leave

Militants of radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr should leave Najaf, another leading Shia cleric has urged.

Sheikh Sadreddin Kubanji told worshippers at Friday prayers in the holy city that "the Najafis will be responsible for protecting Najaf".

Mr Sadr meanwhile defied US troops' threats to arrest him, as he left Najaf and delivered a strong anti-US message.

1,000 Iraqis March Against Al-Sadr

About 1,000 people, including a few women in black veils, marched through the streets of Najaf on Tuesday to urge radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his followers to leave the city.

Cleric Sadr offers peace deal

The offer followed a demand by the new provincial governor of Najaf, Adnan al-Zorfi, that Sadr disband his militia.

al-Sadr losing support

Some of Iraq's most important Shiite Muslim leaders called Tuesday for Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his armed followers to abandon two holy cities they are using for sanctuary to avoid a potentially devastating U.S. attack.

From the Time article itself:

The crowd at the mosque erupts when al-Sadr appears. At 30, he is pudgy and pale faced. He stands at the lectern draped in his burial shroud, a symbol of his determination to die for his faith. He reads his address at high speed, his head down, his body occasionally rocking from side to side. Al-Sadr speaks to the crowd with no rhetorical flourishes or demagogic appeals but makes his purpose plain just the same. He takes a swipe at the Shi'ite hierarchy, which has withheld its support for his uprising. "When I die," he says, "don't let my death stop the resistance. Continue with the struggle and never disband the Mahdi Army."

Also here and from The Telegraph

Americans intensify offensive as Shias denounce Sadr

Iraq's Shia uprising was under assault on four fronts yesterday as American forces launched synchronised attacks on several strongholds, while moderate ayatollahs denounced the head of the Mahdi army, Moqtada al-Sadr.

The fiery cleric was battling to preserve his eroded power base in the holy cities of Najaf, Kufa, Karbala and Diwaniyah after a demand from Iraq's most prominent Shia leaders that he withdraw his troops and cease using the mosques there as "arsenals".

And then we get this:

Al-Sadr has experienced a remarkable shift in fortune. A couple of months ago, he was a marginal nuisance. But since launching its uprising in April, his militia has turned southern Iraq into a grinding standoff for the overwhelmingly superior coalition forces. U.S. officials say the Mahdi Army has perhaps 5,000 fighters nationwide, but last Friday there were almost that many in Kufa and nearby Najaf, 6 miles away.

Then how do you explain
Moqtadr al-Sadr's gang on the ropes?

Karbala is quiet. In Kufa U.S. forces expanded an offensive against rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr on Sunday by pushing into his stronghold of Kufa for the first time, as his armed followers vanished from the streets of this Shiite holy city.

And

U.S. military officers involved in the operation say the assault in Kufa, which began before dawn Sunday and continued into the night, is the latest phase in a campaign that has squeezed Sadr forces out of Kut, Diwaniyah and, over the weekend, the holy city of Karbala.

And

Since announcing the arrest warrant against him, U.S. military officials have continued to allow Sadr to travel between Najaf and Kufa to deliver his Friday sermons. But this past Friday, U.S. troops fired on a convoy of cars that resembled Sadr's, hours after he had called on Iraqis to rise up against the occupation during his sermon. U.S. troops captured Mohammed Tabtabaie, a top Sadr aide, and killed his driver in the firefight.