Militia attacks British troops in Basra
05/26/2007
By Ned Parker,
LA Times Staff Writer
May 27, 2007
BAGHDAD — Militia fighters believed to be from Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Al Mahdi army pounded British bases in the southern port city of Basra today, a day after a militia leader was killed and Sadr reappeared in Iraq after a long absence.
The Al Mahdi militia lobbed 50 mortars at the British-Iraqi joint command center in central Basra before dawn, said an Iraqi police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The bombardment lasted 2 1/2 hours and the British retaliated with air strikes against suspected militia positions.
British military officials confirmed accounts of the fighting.
"It is believed that a number of militia were killed in the attack," the British military said in a statement.
The attack came hours after Iraqi special forces backed by British troops killed the Al Mahdi militia commander for Basra, Wisam Qader. Sadr's representative in the city called for restraint, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, five militants were killed and one was arrested in a joint raid on the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. U.S. forces called in an airstrike when fighters tried to block them from leaving.
An Iraqi police officer said several U.S. airstrikes in the neighborhood killed three civilians and wounded 16.
The arrested fighter, who was not identified, is suspected of being a proxy for Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the military said. He allegedly led "a secret cell terrorist network known for facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, from Iran," a U.S. military statement said.
Sadr, who had vanished before the start in February of the U.S.-led Baghdad security plan, materialized for Friday prayers in Kufa, a sacred Shiite city in Iraq's mid-Euphrates region.
In his sermon, Sadr called for Shiites, Sunnis and Christians to unite against the U.S.-led "occupation" and called on his followers not to be drawn into fighting with Iraqi security forces. Iraqi and U.S. officials believe Sadr had been in Iran before his return.
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