Baghdad, Iraq – Powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen Sunday to redouble their battle to oust American forces, while a top Democrat said the Senate will not stop paying for the Iraq war but will continue to insist that President Bush seek a negotiated end to the violence.
The U.S. military also announced the weekend deaths of 10 American soldiers, including six killed Sunday.
Security remained so tenuous in the Iraqi capital on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the U.S. capture of Baghdad that Iraq’s military declared a 24-hour ban on all vehicles in the capital from 5 a.m. today.
Among the 10 U.S. deaths announced Sunday were three soldiers killed by a roadside bomb while patrolling south of Baghdad; one killed in an attack south of the capital; and two who died of combat wounds sustained north of the capital, in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces. On Saturday, the military said, four U.S. soldiers were killed in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala.
At least 3,280 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.
South of Baghdad, a truck bomb exploded near the Mahmoudiya General Hospital, killing at least 18 people and wounding 23. The pickup loaded with artillery shells blew apart several buildings in a warren of auto- repair shops.
Violence in Iraq remained as relentless as the deepening debate in the U.S. about the way forward in the war four years after Marines and the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division swept into the Iraqi capital 20 days into the American invasion.
At least 47 people were killed or found dead in violence Sunday, including 17 execution victims dumped in the capital.
Al-Sadr commands an enormous following among Iraq’s majority Shiites and has close allies in the Shiite-dominated government. He called for Iraqi police and soldiers, as well as his militia, to turn against Americans.
The statement Sunday carried his seal and was distributed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where the cleric called for an enormous demonstration to mark the fourth anniversary of Baghdad’s fall.
U.S. officials have said al-Sadr left Iraq for neighboring Iran after the start of a U.S. and Iraqi security crackdown. His followers say he is in Iraq.
“You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don’t walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy,” the al-Sadr statement said.
He urged his followers not to attack fellow Iraqis but to turn all their efforts on American forces.
“God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them – not against the sons of Iraq,” the statement said.
Al-Sadr apparently issued the statement in response to three days of clashes between his Mahdi Army militiamen and U.S.- backed Iraqi troops in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad.
In Washington, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said al-Sadr’s words showed the American troop surge was working.
“He is not calling for a resurgence of sectarian conflict. He’s striking a nationalist chord. We’re going to have to watch him closely. He’s not our friend. … He’s acknowledging that the surge is working,” the senator, a strong backer of the war, said on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.”
While religious-based killings are down in Baghdad in the eighth week of the security crackdown, Sunni insurgents – including al-Qaeda in Iraq – and Shiite militia fighters have shifted their battleground to regions such as Baqubah, the Diyala province capital northeast of Baghdad.
At least 62 bodies – execution victims who were tortured – were found in or near Baqubah last week.
In Washington, Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, took issue with an effort by Majority Leader Harry Reid to limit war spending after March 2008 as a way to end U.S. involvement.
“We’re not going to vote to cut funding, period,” Levin said. “But what we should do, and we’re going to do, is continue to press this president to put some pressure on the Iraqi leaders to reach a political settlement.”
Bush has asked Congress for more than $100 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. The House and Senate have approved the money, but their bills seek to wind down the war by including timelines for troops to come home – something Bush will not accept.
The Senate bill would require a U.S. troop exit to begin within 120 days, with a completion goal of March 31, 2008. The House bill would order all combat troops out by Sept. 1, 2008.
Democratic leaders have not negotiated a final version to send to the president. Bush has made clear he will veto it, which will start the process all over.
“We’re going to fund the troops. We always have,” Levin said.
He added, “We’re very strong in supporting the troops, but we’re also strong on putting pressure on the Iraqi leaders to live up to their own commitments.”
Reid, D-Nev., said last week that if Bush rejects the Democrats’ legislation, he would join with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., one of the party’s most liberal members who has long called to end the war by denying funding for it. Reid’s latest proposal would give the president one year to get troops out, ending funding for combat operations after March 31, 2008.
“We can keep the benchmarks part of the bill without saying that the troops must begin to come back within four months,” Levin said. “If that doesn’t work and the president vetoes because of that, and he will, then that part of it is removed, because we’re going to fund the troops.”
