ON THE eve of today’s expected one million strong march in Baghdad, called by Moqtada al-Sadr, against the US-UK occupation of Iraq, US tanks and troops leading Iraqi puppet soldiers have been fighting to enter the al Sadr Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City, where up to two million Shi’ites live.
Fierce fighting raged on Tuesday as US and Iraqi forces battled Shi’ite militiamen in their Baghdad bastion for a third straight day, witnesses said.
They added that fierce clashes erupted soon after midnight on Monday, as American tanks attempted to push into the area.
They were met by fighters of the Mahdi Army militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr armed with rockets, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
The heaviest fighting broke out just after midnight after Mahdi Army fighters had planted bombs along the main routes into Sadr City to slow up and halt the US tanks.
US helicopters overflew the vast neighbourhood, and loud explosions were heard yesterday mid-morning.
More than 30 people have been killed in Sadr City since the fighting broke out on Sunday.
Iraqi puppet troops and US forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the Mahdi Army on the orders of the Dawa party leader, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council leader, Abdul Aziz al Hakim, whose militia formerly known as the Badr Brigade, doubles as a section of the Iraqi army.
While the Iranian government keeps up a nominal opposition to the United States in Iraq, it in fact supports both Maliki and Al Hakim.
On Monday, Maliki warned the Sadr group that it would be banned from participating in elections unless its militia is disbanded.
Today’s scheduled demonstration in Baghdad is on the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad following the US-UK invasion, and will be demanding the end of the occupation.
Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, Sadr’s spokesman in the holy city of Najaf, on Tuesday accused the government of blocking people who wanted to attend the rally.
He said that ‘Iraqi forces in Hilla, Karbala and Kut are preventing Iraqis from heading to Baghdad to participate in the protest,’ referring to Shi’ite dominated cities in central Iraq.
He said security forces were also turning back Sadr’s supporters on roads outside Baghdad, adding that ‘the protest is against the occupation, not against the government. The demonstrators are not carrying guns or causing trouble.’
On Tuesday morning the US-Iraqi military command in Baghdad gave a three-day deadline to citizens of the Iraqi capital’s Shi’ite shrine district of Kadhimiyah to lay down their arms.
‘From tomorrow we call upon the people of Kadhimiyah to hand over their weapons over the next three days. Anyone found holding weapons after the deadline will be held accountable,’ Brigadier General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the command, told reporters.
‘We have decided to disarm Kadhimiyah as it is a holy place. The Baghdad military command is following the prime minister’s order to disarm holy places.’
Today will see over one million Iraqi nationalists of all sects and religions marching in Baghdad.
The mass of the Shi’ite workers and the poor support the Al-Sadr movement that is against the occupation, while the mass of Sunni workers and youth have been the backbone of the insurrection since the occupation began in April 2003.
The time has come for a political agreement to be made between all sections of the anti-occupation movement to drive the US-UK forces out of the country and to unite the Iraqi people by forming a provisional revolutionary government to carry out this task.
