Iraqi soldiers opened fire to disperse supporters of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who were gathering for prayers in Basra today, jeopardizing a fragile peace in the southern city.
Police said Iraqi troops fired in the air to disperse hundreds of worshippers, whom they said had no right to gather in a square in northern Basra, wounding six.
But Sadr supporters accused the Iraqi armed forces of attacking the worshippers and of indiscriminately opening fire on them. They said one person was killed and five wounded.
Basra was the scene of fierce fighting in March, when Iraqi security forces launched a crackdown on Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. A fragile peace rules now in the city.
"As a result and to avoid more bloodshed, we have ordered worshippers to cancel Friday prayers," said Hussein Abdul Wahid, an official at Sadr's office in Basra.
The police said the worshippers had no right to meet in the square, but Sadr supporters said the mosques in the area were too small and they had held prayers in the same square for the last two Fridays without incident.
"Practicing our religious rituals is something granted by the constitution. Banning Sadrists from Friday prayer is a serious breach (that) we will not tolerate," a Sadrist member of parliament, Ahmad al-Masoudi, said. He demanded an explanation from the government.
Iraq's Shia prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, is trying to consolidate the control of the armed forces over areas where Sadr's Mahdi Army militia is strong.
While fighting with security forces eased in Basra within a week after the crackdown, clashes with Shia gunmen raged in the cleric's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City until an agreement two weeks ago to halt fighting.
Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police moved into Sadr City this week, meeting no resistance from Sadr followers who had consented to the move. A militia leader in Sadr City said the Mahdi Army would retaliate for any misbehavior by the army.
Sadr, who launched two uprisings against US forces in 2004, threatened "open war" against the Iraqi government last month unless it halted a crackdown by Iraqi and US security forces on his followers.