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Iraq cleric’s followers march as battles rage

* Sadr supporters march in Baghdad

* Saboteurs blow up southern oil export pipeline * Third day of fighting in Basra; curfews in Shi’ite towns

(Updates with new details)

By Aseel Kami and Wisam Mohammed

BAGHDAD March 27 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of supporters of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched in Baghdad on Thursday as a crackdown on his followers raged in southern Iraqi towns and rockets and mortars exploded across the capital.

In Sadr City, the vast Shi’ite slum named after Sadr’s slain father, enormous crowds of angry men jammed the main circle chanting and shouting slogans calling for the ousting of U.S.-backed Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

“We demand the downfall of the Maliki government. It does not represent the people. It represents Bush and Cheney,” marcher Hussein Abu Ali said.

The slum of 2 million people has been locked in a virtual state of siege: “We are trapped in our homes with no water or electricity since yesterday. We can’t bathe our children or wash our clothes,” said a resident who gave his name as Mohammed.

Mass demonstrations were also held in the northern Kadhimiya and Shula districts. The demonstrations were among the largest anti-government protests Maliki’s government has faced, although the total number of marchers was impossible to verify. An Interior Ministry source said hundreds of thousands took part.

More than 130 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since the government launched a major military operation in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, targeting districts where Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia has a strong presence.

Fighting there raged afresh on Thursday for a third day. A Reuters correspondent in the city said Iraqi forces had cordoned off seven districts but were being repelled by Mehdi Army fighters inside them. Helicopters swooped overhead.

Authorities imposed curfews in other Shi’ite towns to halt the spread of the violence, which has exposed a deep divide between Shi’ite parties in Maliki’s government and Sadr’s followers who in many Shi’ite areas rule the streets.

The government says it is fighting “outlaws”. Sadrists say Maliki is using military force to marginalise political rivals ahead of local elections due by October.

The clashes have all but wrecked a truce declared last August by Sadr, which U.S. commanders had credited with reducing violence.

Saboteurs blew up one of Iraq’s two main oil export pipelines from Basra, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 percent of government revenue. U.S. oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel after the blast.

BOMBARDMENT

A massive mortar bombardment struck the main riverside police base at Basra palace before noon on Thursday and heavy shooting broke out in a main commercial street in the city.

“The operation is still ongoing and will continue until Basra is free from criminals and outlaws,” said Defence Ministry operations chief Major-General Abdul-Aziz Mohammed.

Reuters television pictures showed masked gunmen from Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia in Basra wielding automatic rifles and rocket launchers, showing off vehicles seized from government troops. Some vehicles were painted with Mehdi Army slogans.

“I call on Nuri al-Maliki and the Iraqi army to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iraqi people and not hurt them. We in the Mehdi Army are your brothers,” said a commander amid armed fighters dressed in black.

An Interior Ministry source said 51 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded so far in Basra alone. Basra’s police chief survived a roadside bomb which killed three bodyguards.

Clashes have spread in the past two days to the southern cities of Kut, Hilla, Diwaniya, Amara and Kerbala, as well as several Shi’ite neighbourhoods of Baghdad.

Forty-four people have been killed and 75 wounded in volatile Wasit province, police chief Abdul Hanin al-Imara said. U.S. warplanes hovered over the provincial capital Kut.

“I couldn’t reach my door. I saw from the window two gunmen lying in the street. One was saying to the other, ‘Be careful two of our guys have been killed!’” said Mohammed, a resident reached by telephone. Shooting could be heard in the background.

Ali Bustan, head of the health directorate for eastern Baghdad, said 30 bodies and more than 200 wounded had been brought to two hospitals in Sadr City.

Reuters television pictures showed fighters in T-shirts and jeans firing rocket-propelled grenades and rifles on the streets of the Shaab district of northern Baghdad. Police said Sadr followers had set ablaze a building of Maliki’s Dawa party in Shaab. Clashes had broken out in the southern al-Amin district.

U.S. and Iraqi checkpoints near Sadr City came under fire, said U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover.

Sadr’s aides say his ceasefire is still formally in place. Many of his followers have staged a “civil disobedience” campaign, forcing schools and shops to shut. Sadr has threatened to declare a “civil revolt” if the crackdown is not halted.

Mortar bombs and rockets have exploded across the capital for days. A mortar bomb at a Baghdad bus station killed three people and wounded 15. A strike near the U.S. embassy in the fortified Green Zone sent a column of black smoke into the sky.

Maliki, who has travelled to Basra to oversee the crackdown, has ordered militants to surrender within three days. He cancelled plans to attend an Arab summit in Syria on Saturday.

Reuters AlertNet - Iraq cleric’s followers march as battles rage

Indexed under: al-Shula, Badr Brigade, Baghdad, Basrah "surge", Curfews, Dawa Party, Diwaniya, Hilla, Kazhimiyah, Kut, Militia, Reuters, Sadr City, Sadrist strike, Scenes From An Iraki Childhood, Surge Failure, Wasit, Water, Water Crisis