BAGHDAD -- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged "no retreat" yesterday in the fight against Shia militias in the southern city of Basra, as thousands of protesters demanded that he resign over the crackdown and extremists fired rockets into the U.S.-protected Green Zone.
Shia militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr called yesterday for a political solution to the burgeoning crisis and an end to the "shedding of Iraqi blood." But the statement, released by a close aide, stopped short of ordering his Mahdi Army militia to halt attacks on the Green Zone or stop fighting in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.
Authorities have imposed a three-day curfew in Baghdad to contain the violence, in which more than 130 people have been killed since the government launched the offensive on Tuesday against fighters loyal to Mr. al-Sadr.
In a sign of the deteriorating security, gunmen in the capital seized a high-profile government spokesman from his home in a Shia neighbourhood, killing three of his bodyguards and torching his house. In a bid to curb the violence, Iraq's military ordered vehicles and pedestrians off the streets of the capital until Sunday morning.
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As Americans and Iraqis scrambled to cope with a newly violent Iraq, the State Department ordered all personnel at the U.S. embassy not to leave reinforced structures because of continued incoming rocket or mortar fire from suspected Shia extremists angry over the Basra crackdown.
The campaign to rid Basra of lawless gangs and Shia militias that some believed are tied to nearby Iran is a major test for Mr. al-Maliki, a Shiite, and for the Iraqi military. The ability of Iraqi leaders and security forces to control situations like this one is key to U.S. hopes of withdrawing its forces from the country.
The Prime Minister put his credibility on the line by flying down to Basra and issuing a weekend deadline for the surrender of Mahdi Army militiamen loyal to Mr. al-Sadr. But the militiamen were still controlling Basra's streets yesterday, and the security operation has triggered a violent response among Mr. al-Sadr's followers in Baghdad and cities throughout the Shia heartland of southern Iraq.
In the Baghdad neighbourhood of Kazimiyah, thousands of Mr. al-Sadr's followers denounced Mr. al-Maliki as a "new dictator" as they carried a coffin bearing a crossed-out picture of the U.S.-backed Prime Minister.
However, Mr. al-Maliki showed no sign of wavering. "We have made up our minds to enter this battle, and we will continue until the end. No retreat," Mr. al-Maliki told Basra-area tribal leaders in a speech broadcast nationwide on Iraqi state TV.
The Sadrists have been angry over recent raids and detentions, saying U.S. and Iraqi forces have taken advantage of their seven-month-old ceasefire to crack down on the movement. They have accused rival Shia parties that control Iraqi security forces of engineering the arrests to prevent them from mounting an effective campaign for provincial elections expected this fall.
