BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi soldiers rolled through a Shi’ite militia stronghold in Basra yesterday, drawing scattered bombs and bullets that wounded a camera operator for a U.S.-funded TV station and narrowly missed the commander of government troops in the city.
Followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr accused the army of violating an Iranian-brokered agreement that ended last week’s fighting, which erupted in Basra and quickly engulfed Baghdad and major cities in the Shi’ite south.
Those complaints raised concern that fighting could flare again as the Iraqi government and Shi’ite militias maneuver for control of Basra, the country’s oil capital 340 miles southeast of Baghdad and a major commercial center of 2 million people.
Iraqi troops met no significant resistance as a dozen-vehicle convoy drove yesterday into the Hayaniyah district of central Basra, the scene of fierce clashes last week with Sheik al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army fighters.
Troops set up checkpoints and searched a few houses before leaving the neighborhood after a couple of hours, witnesses said.
An Iraqi cameraman working for the U.S.-funded Alhurra satellite television station was shot in the leg as he videotaped the operation in Hayaniyah.
Later, the camera operator, Mazin al-Tayar, told Alhurra by telephone that the soldiers faced “many roadside bombs and mortar rounds” during the operation, though no military casualties were reported.
One of the bombs exploded near a vehicle carrying the local Iraqi army commander, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji, but caused no injuries, said Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari, who was traveling with the general.
The Basra joint operations center announced that Iraqi soldiers in the Qibla area had detained two people suspected of being militia figures. A gunbattle erupted during the raid and an Iraqi army vehicle was set on fire.
A Mahdi Army spokesman in Basra, known as Abu Liqa al-Basri, said the militiamen were keeping a low profile on Sheik al-Sadr’s orders. He accused Iraqi security forces of creating a “crisis of trust” by mounting “provocative raids” and arresting al-Sadr supporters.
“If the Iraqi army continues in its provocative raids, the consequences will be bad,” he said.
Despite an end to heavy fighting, the Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said security operations were continuing and that a deadline for gunmen to surrender their weapons by Tuesday remained in effect.
Violence surged March 25 when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched a major operation to wrest control of Basra from the militias, which effectively had ruled the city since 2005.
The Sadrists said the operation was aimed at weakening their movement before provincial elections this fall. Their armed wing, the Mahdi Army, mounted a fierce resistance, prompting the Iraqis to call in U.S. jets and British tanks and artillery to help in the battle.
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