Move comes after 2 killed in militant attacks on Green Zone
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updated 1:16 p.m. PT, Thurs., March. 27, 2008
BAGHDAD - The State Department on Thursday told all workers at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad not to leave reinforced structures following the deaths of two Americans in attacks on the Green Zone, a heavily fortified area besieged by militants this week.
The Baghdad military command imposed a curfew on the capital from 11 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Sunday in bid to stem the violence.
One American was killed Thursday by incoming insurgent fire on the Green Zone. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo identified the person as a government employee but said she could give no further details until relatives were notified
An American financial analyst was killed Sunday in the first volley to strike the zone.
The U.S. military has blamed Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen for the attacks, which come as amid heightened tensions between followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and the Shiite-led government.
Iraq’s prime minister vowed Thursday to fight “until the end” against the militias in Basra despite protests by tens of thousands of followers of the radical cleric.
Mounting anger focused on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is personally overseeing operations against the militias dominated by al-Sadr’s supporters amid a violent power struggle in Basra, Iraq’s southern oil hub.
“We have made up our minds to enter this battle and we will continue until the end. No retreat,” al-Maliki said in a speech broadcast on Iraqi state TV.
The crisis was seen as a test of the Iraqi government’s ability to eventually take over its own security. The U.S.-led coalition has a minimal presence in Basra after British forces turned over responsibility for the area to the Iraqis in late December.
"Iraq is now responsible for security in Basra," U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said Wednesday.
Expectations for Iraq
The events in Basra 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.
"I think there's no doubt that a serious failure here by the central government will really dampen expectations that any success in Iraq is (only) going to be in the near term," Kathleen Hicks of the Center for Strategic and International Studies told NBC News.
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,” Sadrist lawmaker Falah Shanshal said.
Demonstrators in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah called al-Maliki a “new dictator” as they carried a coffin bearing a crossed-out picture of the U.S.-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 U.S.-protected Green Zone, firing several rounds of apparent rockets that sent a huge plume of smoke above the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad.
No casualties were immediately reported Thursday, but the military said a U.S. 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.
Civilian spokesman kidnapped
Meanwhile, gunmen kidnapped an Iraqi civilian spokesman for Baghdad security operations Thursday and killed three of his bodyguards after torching his house in a Mahdi Army stronghold in the capital.
The attack targeted Tahseen Sheikhly, a Sunni who often appeared with U.S. military and embassy officials at news conferences to tout the successes of the crackdown on sectarian violence that began in February 2007.
The demonstrating Sadrists are angry over recent raids and detentions, saying U.S. and Iraqi forces have taken advantage of the August cease-fire to crack down on the movement.
