An attack against the top Sadr City official has created tension in the ranks of Shiite militiamen with some blaming a faction unhappy about cooperation with Americans, a local commander said Friday. Gunmen opened fire on the convoy carrying Rahim al-Darraji Thursday in eastern Baghdad, seriously wounding him and killing two of his bodyguards on Thursday, police and a local official said.
Al-Darraji was the principal negotiator in talks with U.S. officials that led to an agreement to pull fighters off the streets in Sadr City, a stronghold of the feared Mahdi Army, and a local commander said suspicion fell on a group of disaffected militiamen who are angry about the deal. "This is a faction that enjoys some weight," the Mahdi Army commander said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
He said the attack has created tension within the ranks of the militia and renewed a debate on the merits of allowing the Americans to operate in Sadr City without resistance during a security sweep aimed at ending the sectarian violence that has raged since a Feb. 22, 2006, bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra. The success in reining in the militia of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which fought fiercely against U.S. forces in 2004, is widely credited with the drop in execution-style killings, random shootings and rocket attacks during the month-old operation, and the attack against al-Darraji cast a shadow on that strategy.
Al-Sadr supporters also planned a demonstration Friday after traditional weekly prayer services to protest the establishment of a joint U.S.-Iraqi base in Sadr City, a sprawling district in eastern Baghdad. |