By , Associated Press | March 27, 2008
BAGHDAD — Iraq's prime minister vowed today to fight "until the end" against Shiite militias in Basra despite protests by tens of thousands of followers of a radical cleric in Baghdad and deadly clashes in the capital and the oil-rich south.
Late today, a senior aide said the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, has called for a political solution to the standoff. In a statement relayed by a close aide, Hazem al-Aaraji, Mr. al-Sadr said he wants "everyone to pursue political solutions and peaceful protests and a stop to the shedding of Iraqi blood."
In another bid to stem the fighting, the Iraqi military command clamped a curfew on Baghdad. No unauthorized vehicles, motorcycles, or pedestrians will be allowed on the streets from 11 p.m. today to 5 a.m. Sunday.
Mounting public anger focused on Prime Minister al-Maliki, who is personally overseeing operations against the militias dominated by Mr. al-Sadr's supporters amid a violent power struggle in Basra, Iraq's southern oil hub.
The Iraqi leader made his pledge to tribal leaders in the Basra area as military operations persisted for a fourth day with stiff resistance.
"We have made up our minds to enter this battle and we will continue until the end. No retreat," Mr. al-Maliki said in a speech broadcast on Iraqi state TV.
The events threatened to unravel a Mahdi Army cease-fire and lead to a dramatic escalation in violence after a period of relative calm that had lasted for months.
Sadrist lawmakers in Baghdad issued a strongly worded statement demanding a halt to the military operations and appealing to Iraqi security forces to stand down.
"We call on our brothers in the Iraqi army and the brave national police not to be tools of death in the hands of the new dictatorship," a Sadrist lawmaker, Falah Shanshal, said.
The crisis was seen as a test of the Iraqi government's ability to eventually take over its own security. The American-led coalition has a minimal presence in Basra after British forces turned over responsibility for the area to the Iraqis in December.
Demonstrators in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah called Mr. al-Maliki a "new dictator" as they carried a coffin bearing a crossed-out picture of the American-backed prime minister, who belongs to a rival political party. A sea of people also rallied in Sadr City, Baghdad's main Shiite district.
Suspected Shiite extremists also continued to hammer the American-protected Green Zone, firing several rounds of apparent rockets that sent a huge plume of smoke above the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad.
One American was killed in today?s attacks, a government employee whose identity was being withheld pending notification of the person's relatives, an American Embassy spokeswoman, Mirembe Nantongo, said.
The military said an American soldier, two American civilians, and an Iraqi soldier were wounded in a volley the day before. An American financial analyst was killed Sunday in attacks on the Green Zone.
