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Music and weddings in Basra, for now

By Aref Mohammed

BASRA, Iraq, April 30 (Reuters) - Last week Haider Lefta took the boards off his shop hiring out musical instruments and session bands for parties, and dusted off a wooden "oud" -- the traditional Arabic lute central to much Iraqi music.

The 26-year-old could scarcely contain his joy. He abandoned the business three years ago after Shi'ite Islamist militiamen bombed his shop, then threatened to kill him: music and parties were against Islam, the black-masked gunmen had said.

"I'm so happy. Those extremists bombed my shop three times but now they are gone: I can get back to my work," he said.

After clashes with government troops, fighters claiming allegiance to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have retreated from streets they once ruled in the southern oil hub of Basra.

Calm has returned to the streets. Shops and cafes have reopened as the pious young men who for years had been shutting them down -- declaring music "haram" (forbidden) and threatening to kill women for not wearing headscarfs -- have vanished.

Basra erupted into violence late in March when Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a military crackdown on militias who controlled much of the city.

At first the offensive backfired, as government troops met fierce resistance from Sadr's Mehdi Army.

Some troops refused to fight or even defected. Hundreds of people were killed in the ensuing clashes in Basra and other southern Shi'ite towns.

But after Maliki allies met Sadr's aides in Iran, Sadr ordered his fighters off the streets. In the weeks since, government troops backed by U.S. and British special forces and air support wrested control of Basra.

"I used to run a women's fashion shop in the town centre but had to close after death threats," said Azhar Abdul-Razzaq, a 40-year-old saleswoman, turned housewife by a militia crackdown on boutiques. "Now I'm thinking of reopening."

Tensions could mount again, especially in the run-up to provincial elections in October when oil-rich Basra is likely to be a key battleground.

RISE OF THE SADRISTS

The rise of the Sadrist movement shortly after the 2003 U.S. invasion surprised the American military and many Iraqis.

Blending religious fervour, anti-Americanism and a populist message, Sadr appeals to millions of dispossessed Shi'ites who have felt abandoned by successive Iraqi administrations.

"I defend the Sadr movement because they are nationalists who want to free Iraq from the occupier," said Abu Firas, a Sadr supporter. "Who else has any interest in helping the poor?"

The movement is popular in the Shi'ite south and in the Sadr City slum in eastern Baghdad, named after Moqtada's father, a senior cleric killed under Saddam Hussein.

On Friday, Sadr backed away from a confrontation with the government, asking his followers not to battle with its troops and to focus their anger on the American "occupiers".

Many who approve of Sadr's anti-American message and his organisation's charitable works have baulked at the puritanical brand of Islam that some who claim allegiance to the cleric seek to impose.

A message scrawled in huge red letters on a wall in central Basra warns any woman who wears make-up or abandons the Islamic hijab (headscarf) of "severe punishment".

Militiamen closed down not just brothels and nightclubs but also shops, university departments and beauty parlours -- and many Basrans say they've had enough.

"EVERYONE DANCED"

Iraqis love parties but there were few to be seen in Basra's dusty streets in recent years -- traditional weddings were held in private for fear of militia attacks.

That is starting to change.

"My son is lucky: his wedding came after the military operations against the Mehdi Army and we were able to hold a party," said Kadhim Mughamis, 49, as he received guests at his house in Maqal, east Basra, once a stronghold of the militia.

Women who covered themselves are now more confident.

Nahla Abdul-Latif, a journalist, has started wearing whatever she wants -- usually a shirt and skirt with no headscarf -- just as she did before before militiamen seized control of her neighbourhood.

"I had to put on the hijab on because of them but now I feel more at ease taking it off. I hope it lasts."

University student Hassan picnicked with his friends on the lawn of his college for the first time in years, free from the armed gangs who used to harrass them.

Even some people who once supported the Mehdi Army were not sad to see them go, saying too many members had descended into gangsterism and organised crime.

"The situation turned out of control. They were penetrated by gangs. Every Mehdi Army fighter thought he was a commander who can do whatever he wants," said Abu Fatima, a bricklayer.

Surrounded by hanging instruments -- drums of various sizes, flutes, an electric piano, an oud -- Lefta ordered two workers to tidy up his dimly lit store.

"I am going to refuse to close it again. It's my right and they won't stop me," he said, hours after unknown gunmen had tossed a grenade at the shop in a fresh bid to intimidate him. He and his musicians have celebrated the militias' retreat.

"We stopped a wedding convoy in the street and performed music," he said. "Everyone got out and danced."

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British troops to stay in Basra 'for the long term'

Britain will maintain a garrison of 4,000 troops at Basra airport for the forseeable future, whatever the pressures on the armed forces, defence officials said last night. They described the British garrison as being there "for the long term" after talks in London yesterday between General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, Des Browne, the defence secretary, and Sir Jock Stirrup, chief of the defence staff.

It was said that the troops were needed to continue their task of training Iraqi forces and also to maintain what officials called "political credence" with the US.

After an hour's meeting at Downing Street with Gordon Brown, Petraeus said British forces had been "invaluable" in providing intelligence, air and logistics support for Iraq troops engaged in the recent Charge of the Knights operation against Mahdi army militia elements supporting the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Asked how long the US wanted 4,000 British troops stationed outside Basra, Petraeus responded: "The answer right now is we don't know ... We need to work [it] out in the next month or two as we look at the so-called troop-to-task analysis."

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Iraqi PM and cleric Sadr head for showdown

May 7 – Iraq's parliament has begun debating a bill on provincial elections that will ban any party from competing in the Oct. 1 polls if they have a militia.

If the law passes, as is expected, it could spark a major showdown with Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose movement should do well in the elections but who has refused to disarm his Mehdi Army militia despite an order from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to do so. Following are answers to questions about the looming confrontation between Sadr and Maliki:

WHAT IS THE LATEST?

The provincial elections law was presented to parliament on Tuesday. It should be debated in the next 1-2 weeks.

Its presentation comes against a backdrop of daily clashes between security forces and fighters claiming loyalty to Sadr in the cleric's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City. The southern city of Basra, where Maliki initially launched a crackdown on militias in late March, has been calm for the past month.

WHAT DOES MALIKI WANT?

Maliki, himself a Shi'ite, says the crackdown is to disarm militias, but Sadr's followers sees it as an attempt to sideline the cleric's mass movement before the elections. The prime minister caught his American backers off-guard with his offensive in Basra, but after early military setbacks, it has gone well. Political leaders across Iraq's sectarian and ethnic divide – apart from the Sadrists, who control 10 percent of seats in parliament – have backed Maliki's campaign. Government officials call it unprecedented support for Maliki.

'The prime minister is very serious, the government is very serious, the political leadership is very serious about this,' said one senior government official.

HOW BAD IS THE RIFT BETWEEN MALIKI AND SADR?

Sadr launched two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004. His movement ventured into national politics in 2005 and Sadr was instrumental in appointing Maliki as prime minister in 2006. But Sadr pulled his movement out of the government in April 2007 when Maliki refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Maliki has refused to negotiate with Sadr over the issue of the Mehdi Army since the crisis erupted, officials say, although envoys from the ruling Shi'ite alliance have met the cleric in Iran, where he is taking advanced Islamic studies.

'It's very bad, the chemistry between the two is extremely bad, it has become very personal,' said the senior government official, referring to Maliki and Sadr.

SADR'S NEXT MOVE?

The cleric last month threatened to formally scrap a ceasefire he imposed on the Mehdi Army last August. But then a couple of weeks later he urged his followers to observe the truce, leaving many guessing about his true intentions. Few analysts expect Sadr to disarm the Mehdi Army.

The Sadrists themselves have a number of competing considerations. On the one hand they are a mass movement with an eye on power in the Shi'ite south, especially after they boycotted the last local elections in January 2005. The movement should do well against parties backing Maliki, who have been accused of doing little to improve life in the south.

But hardline elements, especially in the Mehdi Army, are chafing under the government crackdown and want confrontation.

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New violence in Iraq's port city of Basra kills eight

Eight people were killed and eight more wounded, including four soldiers from US-led coalition forces, in new violence in Iraq's southern port city of Basra on Thursday, the American military said.

Two civilian contractors were among those killed when several rockets slammed into a coalition military base in Basra at around 2:20 pm (1120 GMT), the military said.

In counter fire, unmanned aerial vehicle killed six militants by firing Hellfire missiles, the statement added.

The military did not immediately identify the nationalities of the civilian contractors nor of the wounded soldiers.

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Basra base attack kills civilians

Two civilians have been killed and a British serviceman suffered minor injuries in a rocket attack on the UK's Basra Airport base in Iraq.

Iraqi police say up to 20 rockets were launched at the base at about 1415 local time (1215 BST).

Iraqi and British army units responded by sealing off part of the Zubair district of the city, from where the katyusha rockets had been fired.

The injured serviceman is believed to be classed as "walking wounded".

Air precautions

The Ministry of Defence said no UK personnel had been seriously injured.

Some 4,000 UK troops are currently based in Iraq, the majority on the outskirts of Basra, at the airport.

Some 1,600 troops were withdrawn in 2007 after the completion of Operation Sinbad, which had been designed to put Iraqis in charge of Basra's security.

It is not yet known if the two civilian workers killed in the attack were Iraqi nationals.

The British military spokesman in Iraq, Major Tom Holloway, said: "The attack has resulted in a number of casualties but we will not provide any further details on them at this time."

Air cover was provided following the attack, although there were no reports of any air strikes.

'Encouraging signs'

Local people have said militiamen from the Mehdi Army, who have recently been forced out of their traditional bases by Iraqi and coalition troops, have been attempting to establish themselves in the Zubair district.

Speaking in the House of Commons about the situation in Basra, prior to the attack, Defence Secretary Des Browne said Iraqi security forces had on Sunday concluded a "sector by sector" clearance of the city, which was "returning to normal".

Mr Browne told MPs: "The current situation in Basra is that the grip of the militias has been broken with the leadership in flight or in hiding and huge quantities of illegal weaponry have been recovered."

He said there were "early but encouraging signs" that life in the city was "returning to normal".

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Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the Iraqi parliament took up the conflict between PM Nuri al-Maliki and the Sadr Movement and President Jalal Talabani's initiative to resolve it. At the same time, the two sides seemed to get farther apart, with al-Maliki continuing to insist on the disarming of the Mahdi Army militia.

Talabani's plan called for a first step of the militiamen pledging not to carry arms in public in Baghdad and troubled areas in the south. The Talabani plan may soon be voted on by parliament, but it is opposed by the Sadr Bloc of MPs.

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In big concession, militia agrees to let Iraqi troops into Sadr City

Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD — Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad's Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.

In return, Sadr's Mahdi Army supporters won the Iraqi government's agreement not to arrest Mahdi Army members without warrants, unless they were in possession of "medium and heavy weaponry."

The agreement would end six weeks of fighting in the vast Shiite Muslim area that's home to more than 2 million residents and would mark the first time that the area would be under government control since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. On Friday, 15 people were killed and 112 were injured in fighting, officials at the neighborhoods two major hospitals said.

It also would be a startling turnaround in fortunes for Maliki, who'd been widely criticized for picking a fight with Sadr's forces, first in the southern port city of Basra and then in Sadr City.

Members of Maliki's Dawa Party and the powerful Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq met with Sadr officials on Thursday and Friday to come up with a 14-point agreement to end the weeks of fighting, which has hindered the flow of food and water into Sadr City. The agreement was then passed to Sadr and Maliki for final approval, said Baha al Araji, a Sadrist legislator.

Hundreds of people have been killed and hundreds have been wounded in the fighting, which included frequent U.S. airstrikes. At least 8,500 people have been driven from their homes, and thousands of others have been forced to stay inside, too frightened to flee.

A government supporter said the Sadrists were brought to the table by the anger of Sadr City residents. On Thursday, the Iraqi military ordered Sadr City residents to evacuate in apparent preparation for a major offensive push.

"It is not the government who pressured the Sadrists into entering this agreement," said Ali al Adeeb, a leading member of the Dawa party. "It is the pressure from the people inside Sadr City and from their own people that will make them act more responsibly."

Like many things in Iraq, the precise effect of the agreement won't be known immediately. Sadr officials long have claimed that their militia has no heavy weaponry, and Sadr has condemned those with such munitions.

Sadr supporter Araji, however, said the agreement specifically barred American forces from entering Sadr City.

"The Iraqi forces, not the American forces, can come into Sadr City and search for weapons," Araji said. "We don't have big weapons, and we want this to stop."

The Mahdi Army, and the Sadr movement in general, has been losing support in the past two months in the face of a government offensive intended to force the militia from its controlling positions in Basra and Sadr City.

In Basra, a city known for culture and music, Shiite extremists had taken control in late 2005 and began shutting down music stories and forcing women to cover themselves.

But after initially resisting Maliki's offensive, the Sadrists ceded their areas, and the change in atmosphere has been palpable. An annual poetry festival, al Mirbed, resumed for the first time in three years, with male and female folk dancers performing in public and poets spouting their verses.

The city isn't free of Sadr influences, however, though the Iraqi army seems ready to quell any resurgence. Sadrists resumed prayer services on Friday for the first time since late March, but as the imam spouted anti-government rhetoric, Iraqi soldiers converged on the mosque and the Sadrists ran, witnesses said.

Iraqi officials, including Adeeb, said that Iran, which U.S. officials have accused of supporting the Shiite militias, was "aware" and "supportive" of the agreement. Adeeb made two trips to Iran to meet with Iranian officials to stem the militia violence in Iraq.

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Iraqi officials, including Adeeb, said that Iran, which U.S. officials have accused of supporting the Shiite militias, was "aware" and "supportive" of the agreement. Adeeb made two trips to Iran to meet with Iranian officials to stem the militia violence in Iraq.

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May 12, 2008
Drive in Basra by Iraqi Army Makes Gains
By STEPHEN FARRELL and AMMAR KARIM

BASRA, Iraq — Three hundred miles south of Baghdad, the oil-saturated city of Basra has been transformed by its own surge, now seven weeks old.

In a rare success, forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki have largely quieted the city, to the initial surprise and growing delight of many inhabitants who only a month ago shuddered under deadly clashes between Iraqi troops and Shiite militias.

Just as in Baghdad, Iraqi and Western officials emphasize that the gains here are “fragile,” like the newly planted roadside saplings that fail to conceal mounds of garbage and pools of foul-smelling water in the historic port city’s slums.

Among the many uncertainties are whether the government, criticized for incompetence at the start of the operation, can maintain the high level of troops here. But in interviews across Basra, residents overwhelmingly reported a substantial improvement in their everyday lives.

“The circle of fear is broken,” said Shaker, owner of a floating restaurant on Basra’s famed Corniche promenade, who, although optimistic, was still afraid to give his full name, as were many of those interviewed.

Hopes for a similar outcome in Baghdad’s Sadr City district were undercut when an Iraqi armored unit was struck by three roadside bombs on Sunday, one day after a cease-fire there was negotiated.

The principal factor for improvement that people in Basra cite is the deployment of 33,000 members of the Iraqi security forces after the March 24 start of operations, which allowed the government to blanket the city with checkpoints on every major intersection and highway.

Borrowing tactics from the troop increase in Baghdad, the Iraqi forces raided militia strongholds and arrested hundreds of suspects. They also seized weapons including mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and sophisticated roadside bombs that officials say were used by Iranian-backed groups responsible for much of the violence.

Government forces have now taken over Islamic militants’ headquarters and halted the death squads and “vice ‘enforcers’ ” who attacked women, Christians, musicians, alcohol sellers and anyone suspected of collaborating with Westerners.

...

An overwhelmingly Shiite city of more than three million people, Basra sits atop huge oil reserves, which, Western officials say, provide 40 percent of Iraq’s annual oil revenue of $38 billion.

Thus, stability in a city that could be Iraq’s economic engine room is a major priority for the Shiite-led government. However, the Basra experience may not translate to other cities like Mosul or Kirkuk in the north, with a much more complicated religious and ethnic mix.

The push into Basra succeeded in part because people here were exhausted with the violence and in part because Mr. Maliki received crucial help from the American and British military.

British forces, who headed the coalition military forces in Basra beginning in 2003, handed security control to the Iraqis six months ago. But a British military spokesman said British and American forces were providing fighter jets, helicopters, surveillance and logistical support for the government operation.

In addition to the 4,000 British troops in Basra, he said, the Americans sent 800 people, including surveillance experts and around 200 transition team “advisers” embedded with Iraqi troops.

An American military spokesman in Baghdad confirmed that one American had been killed and eight wounded in the Basra operation but said the United States had not had “conventional ground forces in direct support of combat operations.”

Iraqi commanders acknowledge that the American and British support helped them wrest control of Mahdi Army strongholds like Hayyaniyah — a slum that is Basra’s equivalent of Sadr City — and other poor districts that are fertile recruiting grounds for militias.

But a majority of the military presence on the streets is Iraqi.

...

But as with the American-led surge in Baghdad, there are abiding uncertainties.

These center on how long such a heavy military presence can be sustained on urban streets, and what happens when it departs.

Gen. Mohan al-Freiji, the Iraqi commander in Basra, said the city was “75 percent” under control. He said the principal threat stemmed from rogue elements of the Mahdi Army and factions like the Iraqi Hezbollah (Party of God), Thairallah (Revenge of God) and Fadhila (Virtue).

Emphasizing the urgent need to address decades of poverty and neglect, he said the government had to provide jobs and investment to convert short-term military gains into long-term political and economic ones.

“This is a city which sits on top of oil, but its young people are unemployed,” he said.

Sadrists protest that the Basra operation is a cynical exercise to weaken Mr. Maliki’s Shiite rivals ahead of provincial elections in the fall.

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8 killed, 19 wounded in Sadr City

The Associated Press
Thursday, May 15, 2008

BAGHDAD: Officials at two hospitals say eight people have been killed and 19 wounded in clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and militiamen in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City enclave.

The officials from the Imam Ali and al-Sadr hospitals say the eight killed are fighting age males and that the wounded include women and children. The clashes took place late Wednesday and early Thursday, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

The latest fighting casts fresh doubts on whether a truce reached this week between Shiite politicians and followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr can bring an end to seven weeks of fighting in Sadr City, where al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia has its largest stronghold.