‘Outlaw’ cleric is accused in killing

From combined dispatches

BAGHDAD — U.S. administrators yesterday declared radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr an “outlaw” and announced a warrant for his arrest.

Followers of Mr. al-Sadr had engaged in battles with coalition forces a day earlier. At least 52 Iraqis and nine coalition troops, including eight Americans, were killed.

U.S. officials would not say when they would move to arrest Mr. al-Sadr, who is holed up in the main mosque in Kufa, south of Baghdad, and is guarded by armed supporters.

Mr. al-Sadr turned down an appeal by Iraq’s powerful Shi’ite Muslim establishment, which was backed by Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, to renounce violence, an aide to a leading cleric said yesterday.

“The delegation met Muqtada’s aides, who did not express interest in relying on wisdom and patience,” said the aide to Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council.

L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. official in Iraq, canceled a trip to Washington this week, a Senate aide said yesterday. No reason was given for the postponement, the aide said.

Hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi troops in tanks and armored Humvees surrounded the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, ready to crack down on insurgents after a mob killed and mutilated four Americans last week.

Explosions and gunfire were heard from the city — including a string of up to 30 blasts — as Marines met resistance while probing outer neighborhoods of the city.

At least one Iraqi gunman was killed in the exchanges. A U.S. Marine was killed in the area earlier yesterday.

Troops dug trenches on the city’s edges, sealed off roads and imposed a nighttime curfew.

The showdown with Mr. al-Sadr threatened to heighten tensions with Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslim majority as U.S. troops are burdened by the Sunni guerrillas’ bloody insurgency. But American officials apparently hope the Shi’ite public — many of whom distrust Mr. al-Sadr — will not rally around the cleric.

A senior military official said yesterday the possibility of sending additional troops to Iraq was under consideration.

“The events of the weekend show an obvious potential for more demonstrations and more violence,” the Central Command official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“We asked our staff to look at what forces might be available in quick-response mode,” the official said, insisting that no decision has been made yet.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the potential for violence depended on “whether [Mr. al-Sadr] decides to come peacefully or whether he decides to come not peacefully.”

Mr. al-Sadr, a 30-year-old firebrand who frequently denounces the U.S. occupation in his sermons, vowed to resist.

The Americans “have the money, weapons and huge numbers, but these things are not going to weaken our will because God is with us,” he said in a statement sent to the Arab TV station Al Jazeera, which provided a copy to the Associated Press.

“We don’t fear death, and martyrdom gives us dignity from God,” Mr. al-Sadr said.

Several hundred of his armed militiamen control Kufa, holding its police station and blocking a road leading to the main mosque.

Sheik Abu Mahdi al-Rubaie, a 35-year-old al-Sadr follower at the mosque, warned that any U.S. move against Mr. al-Sadr would be “a very dangerous thing.”

“They will pay a heavy price. We will not allow them to enter Kufa. We are ready to lay down our lives for al-Sayed,” he said, using the Arabic word for “master” to refer to Mr. al-Sadr.

U.S. officials said that the warrant against Mr. al-Sadr — on charges of involvement in the murder of a rival cleric a year ago — was issued months ago by an Iraqi judge and that Iraqis only now want to carry it out. The crackdown on the opponent of the U.S. administration also comes as the June 30 deadline approaches for the transfer of power from the Americans to the Iraqis.

Mr. Bremer declared Mr. al-Sadr an “outlaw.”

“He is attempting to establish his authority in the place of the legitimate authority. We will not tolerate this,” Mr. Bremer said.

Sunday’s clashes — sparked by the arrest of al-Sadr aide Mustafa al-Yacoubi, who also is accused in the slaying of rival cleric Abdel-Majid al-Khoei — were a surprise show of power by Mr. al-Sadr’s militia, Mahdi’s Army.

Fighting was particularly fierce in Sadr City, a Shi’ite neighborhood in Baghdad, where militiamen ambushed U.S. soldiers, killing eight and sparking battles that killed 30 Iraqis and wounded 110 others. It took a column of tanks to restore quiet and force the militiamen out of the police stations they had seized after police fled.