By Patrick J. McDonnell
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 8, 2004
BAGHDAD — After 10 weeks of fierce combat, an odd sense of normality has
returned to this capital's most battle-scarred neighborhood.
The break
in running clashes between U.S. troops and Shiite Muslim militiamen loyal to
outspoken cleric Muqtada Sadr has brought a tenuous peace to the sprawling
district known as Sadr City. By most accounts, Sadr's declaration of a truce
two weeks ago was a collateral benefit of Iraq's return to a semblance of
self-rule.
The militantly anti-U.S. cleric has expressed a strong
desire that his popular movement be represented in national elections scheduled
for January. Sadr wants a place at the bargaining table as a political leader,
not a warlord.
"We are not terrorists as some are describing us," said
Sheik Abdul-Hadi Darraji, the manager of Sadr's compound in Sadr City. "We are
serving our country."
The compound was twice destroyed in U.S. attacks
in the spring — and twice rebuilt. On the outside wall, black and green
flags memoriali ze young "martyrs" lost in fighting against the "infidels" from
Najaf to Karbala to Baghdad.
In one-sided battles, U.S. troops have
killed as many as 900 militiamen in Sadr City since April. There are no
accurate figures for civilian casualties. Eight U.S. soldiers also were
killed, all but one on the first day of the fighting.
U.S. troops who
have resumed regular foot patrols in the community of about 2.5 million have
hardly been shot at in recent days.
Some express a sense of disbelief.
Until recently, said one soldier, "a patrol here was more like a rolling
firefight."
Masked gunmen outfitted in black no longer roam the streets
or peer from alleys, weapons at the ready.
The U.S.-backed district
council held its first meeting in more than three months Wednesday.
The
sessions were suspended after the slaying of the council's president, one of two
neighborhood representatives found beaten to death and strung from street lamps.
A crude sign attached to a slain councilman's chest proclaimed: "This
is the fate of collaborators and spies."
Sadr's representatives cited
the "public interest" when they declared a truce last month.
By the
U.S. Army's account, influential Shiite tribal sheiks pressured Sadr to urge
his fighters to lay down their arms.
"There is a clear groundswell here
that says, 'Calm down the violence,' " said Lt. Col. Gary Volesky, who heads
the 1st Cavalry battalion that patrols Sadr City. "We know we're not going to
win this thing by fighting, by pulling the trigger."
Though virulently
anti-American, Sadr's faction is separate from the largely Sunni Muslim
insurgency against U.S. troops and their allies that began a year ago. Former
loyalists of ousted President Saddam Hussein, who favored the minority Sunni
Arab population, are thought to be ringleaders of that armed insurgency, along
with anti-U.S. nationalists and religious militants, both Iraqi and
foreign.
The Sunni-led insurgency wants the new int erim government to
fail. By contrast, Shiite activists — including Sadr's movement —
back the idea of a new government that is representative of the majority Shiite
population.
Many in Sadr City and other Shiite enclaves fear that the
current turmoil in Iraq could result in the return of Hussein's Baath Party
apparatus, which repressed Shiites throughout Iraq.
"We know the
Baathists are plotting," Darraji said.
Polls show that Sadr's popularity
among Iraqis rose dramatically during the spring uprising.
Sadr City was
set up a generation ago as an urban renewal project to house migrant laborers
from Iraq's Shiite south. It was the base of Sadr's father, Mohammed Sadeq
Sadr, a revered Shiite cleric who was killed along with two of his sons in a
hail of bullets during Hussein's rule — an assassination widely attributed
to the dictator's secret police.
Today, Sadr City is a densely populated
warren of residential quarters, factories, shops and bumpy roads. The district
is chronically short of proper sewage facilities, running water and other vital
services.
The neighborhood, long called Saddam City, was renamed Sadr
City after U.S.-led troops toppled Hussein. Many Shiites, including those in
Sadr City, greeted U.S. troops as liberators. But relations soured amid
deteriorating public services and a series of U.S. missteps — including
the death of a Shiite cleric who was killed here when an American tank ran over
his vehicle.
Seizing on his father's popularity, Muqtada Sadr emerged as
the spiritual leader of the Al Mahdi militia, a lightly trained but zealous
force composed of thousands of mostly disadvantaged young men.
Despite
constant tensions between Sadr supporters and occupying U.S. troops, Sadr City
remained relatively peaceful — until April.
That was after U.S.
forces shut down Sadr's newspaper and arrested a top aide. With Sadr's arrest
in connection with a murder case seemingly imminent, Al Mahdi fighters seiz ed
control of the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala and launched coordinated
attacks on American troops in Sadr City on April 4. Hundreds of militiamen
blocked streets, fired at U.S. convoys and seized eight police stations. So
began 82 consecutive days of varying degrees of combat that ended only with last
month's truce.
"For a while there," said Lt. Peter East of the 2nd
Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, "it seemed like it was us against all of Sadr
City."
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former commander of U.S. troops in
Iraq, famously declared his forces' intention to "kill or capture" Sadr —
a statement that incensed the cleric's followers.
Since the truce, Al
Mahdi fighters have stashed away their weapons and are out sweeping the streets
and directing traffic. Like all private militias here, the Al Mahdi militia is
technically illegal. Sadr has rebuffed U.S. calls to disband it.
"Everybody wants the situation here to return to normal," said Jassim Mohammed,
a 33-year -old shopkeeper and Al Mahdi militiaman, who pointed to bullet holes
on the wall above his storefront — from a U.S. machine gun, he
explained.
But there is no moderation in one of Sadr's principal goals:
the departure of U.S. and other foreign forces from Iraqi soil.
"Each
Iraqi refuses the presence of a single American soldier on our territories,"
Darraji said. "If we want to enjoy true sovereignty, there should be no
interference from Americans or other outsiders."
The Sadr movement would
like to see its militia integrated with U.S.-trained Iraqi police — a
proposal American military officials view as a power grab.
In a country
where arms can mean influence, analysts say that Sadr is hesitant to disband his
militia without some guarantees that he will hold some political power in Iraq.
After months of fighting, mainstream Shiite leaders long hostile to Sadr now
reluctantly recognize him as part of a broader Shiite front vying for
power.
How the interim Ir aqi government plans to treat Sadr remains to
be seen, though there already has been talk of an amnesty for him in the slaying
of a rival cleric. U.S. commanders on the ground, however, see no role for the
Al Mahdi militia.
As Charlie Company patrolled a sweltering Sadr City
the other day, Lt. Nicholas Auletta approached an energetic young man directing
traffic at a busy intersection and told him that he would have to remove the
green armband signifying his allegiance to Sadr.
"We appreciate your
help," Auletta informed the volunteer, "but you've got to take that
off."
The man promised to comply, though half an hour later he still
wore the armband as he waved snarled traffic along on a main drag.
During a morning patrol, it was clear that some tensions had lifted in Sadr
City. Eager children gathered around U.S. soldiers, who were passing out
plastic Iraqi flags. A few residents flashed smiles. Many seemed stunned to
see troops again walking the crowded streets, away from their armored vehicles
and vulnerable to ambush.
As the temperature soared above 110 degrees,
troops with their 50 pounds of body armor and equipment trudged along a highway
median littered with rotting vegetables, sheep entrails and other waste dumped
from nearby markets. The soldiers eyed passing cars warily and continued on
their way.
Accompanying the U.S. forces were several Iraqi National
Guardsmen and an interpreter who worried about being recognized as working
alongside U.S. forces. Several pulled scarves over their faces. At least
three interpreters working with the U.S. Army in Sadr City have been killed and
scores have quit their jobs in fear of retaliation.
At two official
buildings — a police station and a power facility — the managers
appealed to the U.S. military for more security. Both facilities are in urgent
need of blast walls to guard against car-bomb attacks, the officials
said.
Commanders are hopeful that the relative peace will last and
permit the c ompletion of about $100 million in U.S.-funded sewage and water
projects planned for Sadr City, utilizing local labor. Contractors face
threats, however, slowing the work.
"It's no wonder the people in Sadr
City get a little irritated — they've waited a year" for long-promised
improvements, said Col. Robert B. Abrams, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat
Team of the 1st Cavalry. "We did not come here to spill Iraqi blood….
There's been far too much bloodshed here already than anyone wants to discuss.
And that's why it needs to stop."