IRAQ: Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demanded yesterday that a rival Islamist leader condemn his own followers over deadly Shia Muslim infighting that rocked the Shia holy city of Najaf.
Clashes broke out on Wednesday night between Sadr's armed followers and a crowd who burned down his offices in Najaf, killing eight people.
That sparked violence in Baghdad and Shia towns across southern Iraq, as members of the pro-Sadr Mehdi Army militia attacked offices of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution (SCIRI) and its Badr militia. SCIRI is headed by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a powerful Shia cleric in government.
"I demand that brother Abdul Aziz al-Hakim make an official announcement condemning the aggression by his representatives and some extremists," Sadr told a news conference in the city, where police and troops spread out to keep the peace.
"I call upon the Mehdi Army to be calm because anything else will not be in the Iraqi people's interests," he said, thanking the prime minister, Ibrahim Jaafari, for condemning the attack.
Some of his followers were in tears as they inspected Sadr's burnt-out headquarters a short distance from the shrine of Ali, the cousin of Islam's Prophet Mohammed who is revered by Iraq's majority Shia Muslims.
Only party paper-chains hanging from the ceiling escaped the flames. The office saw celebrations earlier this week when it was reopened a year after the Mehdi Army staged an uprising against US forces then controlling the town.
Sadr announced three days of mourning over the death of four of his followers and the wounding of 20 in the fighting.
Accounts differed over how Wednesday's violence began. Sadr supporters say a crowd including members of the Badr group stormed the office. Badr movement head Hadi al-Ameri has denied any involvement by the militia, which works with the police.
Witnesses said two rival crowds, one of Sadr supporters and another of Najafi rivals of Sadr, began throwing stones at each other as police stood by.
"What happened made all of us in the city sad. We don't want any more blood-letting in what is supposed to be a city of peace," said shopkeeper Hamoudi Said.
Najaf has been spared most of the violence rocking Baghdad and the centre of Iraq where Sunni insurgents are fighting the government and its US backers. But it has not been immune to conflict between Shia factions jockeying for power in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion. In an example of how fickle Shia politics can be, Sadr later described the Badr movement as "innocents before God" after Shia leaders rallied to calm the situation.
Najaf is home to Sadr, Hakim and his supporters, and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a reclusive figure considered Iraq's most influential Shia cleric. Sadr's power base is thought to be in the poor Baghdad district known as Sadr City.
The son of a revered cleric widely believed to have been killed by Saddam Hussein's agents in 1999, Sadr has followed a different path from his Shia peers by refusing a role in government while US troops remain in the country. But three members of the cabinet are Sadr supporters.
The bodies of 36 men - all but one wearing traditional Kurdish trousers - were discovered yesterday in a dry river bed near Iraq's border with Iran. All had been shot in the head execution-style and some were cuffed.
The bodies were discovered near Badrah, southeast of Baghdad. Police estimated the men were killed within the last three days since one had a paper in his pocket dated from Monday.
None had any identification cards. The bodies were transported to a morgue in Kut.