Shia militia seizes control of Amarah in southern Iraq
The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah today in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country’s powerful, unofficial armies.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki dispatched an emergency security delegation that included the Minister of State for Security Affairs and top officials from the Interior and Defence ministries, said Yassin Majid, the prime minister’s media adviser.
The Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations this morning, planting explosives that flattened the buildings, residents said.
About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades were patrolling city streets in commandeered police vehicles, eyewitnesses said.
Other fighters had set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors.
At least 15 people, including five militiamen, one policeman and two bystanders, have been killed in clashes since Friday, Dr. Zamil Shia, director of Amarah’s department of health, said by telephone from the city, about 200 miles south-east of Baghdad.
The events in Amarah highlight the threat of wider violence between rival Shiite factions, who have entrenched themselves among the majority Shiite population and are blamed for killings of rival Sunnis.
Fighting broke out in Amara yesterday after the head of police intelligence in the surrounding province, a member of the rival Shiite Badr Brigade militia, was killed by a roadside bomb, prompting his family to kidnap the teenage brother of the local head of the a-Madhi Army.
