BAGHDAD — Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gave a “final warning” to the government Saturday to halt a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare “open war until liberation.”
A full-blown uprising by al-Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq at a time when the Sunni extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq appears poised for new attacks after suffering severe blows last year.
Al-Sadr’s warning appeared on his website as Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government claimed success in a new push against Shiite militants in the southern city of Basra. Fighting killed 14 more people in Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.
Fighting in Sadr City and the crackdown in Basra are part of a government campaign against followers of al-Sadr and Iranian-backed Shiite splinter groups that the U.S. has identified as a threat to a democratic Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, also a Shiite, has ordered al-Sadr to disband the Mahdi Army, Iraq’s biggest Shiite militia, or face a ban from politics.
In the statement, al-Sadr lashed back, accusing the government of selling out to the Americans and branding his followers as criminals.
Al-Sadr, who is thought to be in Iran, said he had tried to defuse tensions in August by declaring a unilateral truce, only to see the government respond by closing his offices and “resorting to assassinations.”
“So I am giving my final warning . . . to the Iraqi government . . . to take the path of peace and abandon violence against its people,” al-Sadr said. “If the government does not refrain . . . we will declare an open war until liberation.”
Al-Sadr’s statements came as al-Qaeda in Iraq announced a one-month offensive against U.S. troops. In a audiotape released on a militant website, a man claiming to be the purported leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, called on followers to attack U.S. soldiers and members of awakening councils, Sunni Arab tribesmen and former insurgents who changed sides and are now fighting al-Qaeda.
At least 14 people were killed and 84 wounded in Saturday’s fighting in Sadr City, police and hospital officials said. Sporadic clashes were continuing after sundown, with gunmen darting through the streets, firing at Iraqi police and soldiers who have taken the lead in the fighting.
The U.S. military said its forces in Sadr City killed seven “criminals” — two in gun battles and five in two separate airstrikes.
In Basra, Iraqi soldiers backed by British troops pushed their way into Hayaniyah, the local stronghold of al-Sadr’s militia. As the operation got underway, British cannons and U.S. warplanes pounded an empty field near Hayaniyah as a show of force, said a British military spokesman. On Saturday, Iraqi soldiers moved block by block, searching homes, seizing weapons and detaining suspects.
