21 Arrested During Raids in Karbala

Iraqi forces backed by American and Polish troops launched predawn raids Tuesday against religious militants who have made this holy city the focus of a power struggle between Shiite Muslim factions, police and military officials said.

Twenty-one people were detained.

The operation began at the Al Mukhayam mosque, which holds the office of Muqtader Sadr, a cleric whose fiery sermons against the U.S.-led occupation have inflamed tensions in Karbala. Many mainstream Shiites dismiss Sadr as a rabble-rouser, and the U.S. military has been monitoring him and his armed militia.

The U.S. command said the raids were conducted by Iraqi police and a battalion from the newly constituted Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, a paramilitary unit recruited by the U.S.-led coalition that will operate until a national army is formed.

The Iraqis met no resistance and did not need help from the Americans and Poles, said Iraqi police Lt. Col. Rassaq Abid Ali in Karbala.

Police officials here said the operation underscored the benefits of letting Iraqis take the lead in some sensitive operations. Had Americans raided a mosque, they said, there would have been widespread anger. But Karbala residents did not object to the Iraqis doing it and appeared to support the move.

Officials from the U.S.-led governing authority praised the move.

“We very much welcome this action by the Iraqis to detain criminals and to show the people in the rest of Iraq that the new Iraq will not tolerate those who do not respect law and order,” said Charles Heatly, spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Meanwhile, throughout Iraq, over the 24-hour period ending at noon Tuesday, U.S. forces conducted 1,575 patrols and made 14 raids, detaining 163 people, coalition officials said.

To the west of Baghdad, soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division detained 91 people, including four senior former Iraqi army officers wanted for organizing attacks against U.S. troops, according to a statement released by the coalition. The paratroopers also seized “significant” numbers of weapons, munitions and material used for making explosive devices.

In southern Iraq, Operation Sweeney, a drive by U.S. Marines and British forces to disrupt smuggling, pushed into its third week.

Tensions between rival factions of Shiites -- the Iraqi majority that was brutally repressed by Saddam Hussein -- have risen recently in Karbala, where Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammad, was martyred and entombed about 1,300 years ago.

Last week, three military policemen attached to the 101st Airborne Division were ambushed and killed there while trying to disarm gunmen who served as guards for a relatively minor ayatollah, Mahmoud Hassani. The cleric has apparently gone into hiding. About 30 people were arrested Sunday in connection with the ambush, Polish military sources said.

Earlier last week, Sadr’s supporters, who number about 4,000 mostly poor, unemployed youths, clashed with followers of Ali Sistani, a grand ayatollah who has a following of millions in and outside Iraq.

Sistani is the leader of Hawza, Iraq’s leading Shiite seminary and religious authority. He has preached moderation and asked Iraqis to be patient with the U.S. occupation in the hope the Americans can fulfill their promises. He also has called on Iraqis to disarm. Sadr is believed to have ties to Iranian hard-liners.

Ali, the police lieutenant colonel, said Tuesday that weeklong consultations had led to an agreement between provincial chieftains and Hawza clerics that could bring a measure of stability to this city about 55 miles south of Baghdad. The document they signed, he said, demands that mosques not shelter arms or gunmen and that clerics cooperate with police in detaining anyone illegally armed.

Tuesday, after the raids, militiamen who used to meander in and out of Karbala’s two most important shrines were gone, replaced by about 80 police officers.

“You can wander anywhere in Karbala today,” Ali said, “and you will not see a rifle. Most of us have no problem with the coalition here. But Karbala is a special town, a holy town, and it is much better for Iraqis, not Americans, to deal with problems at its mosques.”

Ali said many of the Iraqis detained in Tuesday’s raid were Sadr supporters. The cleric’s militia had tried to take control of Karbala’s two shrines, which are believed to get millions of dollars in donations from Iraq and abroad each year. Sistani had forbidden the move, and several people were killed in the resultant fighting this month.

Sadr is the son and grandson of Shiite clerics killed by Saddam Hussein’s regime, but has no formal religious training himself. His announced plans to set up his own government early this month failed to gather any notable public support.

*

Lamb reported from Baghdad and Salman from Karbala.

--- UNPUBLISHED NOTE ---

In stories after April 9, 2004, Shiite cleric Muqtader Sadr is correctly referred to as Muqtada Sadr.

--- END NOTE ---