Joint resistance

Firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr speaks at the grand mosque of Kufa on April 16. - AFP

A united Shia-Sunni rebellion has resulted in the highest number of American causalities in a month so far, and the occupier now appears to be sinking in the quagmire that is Iraq.

A YEAR after the United States troops occupied Iraq, a full-scale Iraqi "intifada" (uprising) is on. Iraqi partisans have risen to confront the new colonial army, transcending the denominational divide. The Shia and Sunni resistance forces are coordinating their military moves for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Cities such as Fallujah, Baghdad, Ramadi and Nasirriya witnessed heroic battles for days in early April. The fighting spread beyond "the Sunni triangle" after a call was given by the firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to "terrorise" the occupation forces. Around the same time, the U.S. launched a brutal assault against Fallujah in retaliation to the killing of four mercenaries in late March.

In the fighting that ensued, more than a thousand Iraqi civilians have been killed, most of them in Fallujah, where the occupiers used F-16 fighter planes and Apache helicopter gunships on civilian targets. From all accounts, the people of Fallujah are putting up a brave fight against overwhelming firepower. In the few parts of Fallujah where the U.S. forces managed to subdue the resistance, they did so after house-to-house fighting. The occupation forces used 500-pound bombs to level a mosque were resistance fighters were suspected to be hiding. U.S. volunteers working for a Christian charity organisation inside Fallujah told the U.S. media that one of the main hospitals in the city was destroyed in the bombing. They reported that among the 700 Iraqis killed in Fallujah, 157 were women and 146 children.

The city has been blockaded by U.S. troops since the first week of April. The valour and suffering of Fallujah has inspired and united the Iraqi people as never before. Shia and Sunni organisations have been jointly organising blood donation camps all over Iraq. Graphic footage of the carnage inflicted on Fallujah has been broadcast all over the world, thanks to courageous Arab television correspondents reporting from the city.

In the second week of April, U.S. forces unilaterally declared a ceasefire, but the fighting continued on a lesser scale. Fallujah has shown that the mighty U.S. military can be stopped in its tracks by fighters with AK-47s and Soviet-era rocket-launchers. The U.S. Army had to abandon control of parts of the Amman-Baghdad highway passing through Fallujah, cutting off one of its main supply lines. The town of Abu Ghraib, which is between Fallujah and Baghdad, was captured by the resistance fighters in the second week of April. A U.S. Apache helicopter was shot down over the town.

U.S. military commander Gen. Ricardo Sanchez has warned that Fallujah would be taken and Muqtada al-Sadr "captured or killed". Al-Sadr is sheltered in a mosque at the holy city of Najaf. The senior-most Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has warned of a serious backlash if U.S. troops tried to enforce their authority in Najaf. A senior member of the Iraqi Interim Council, Abdel Basset Turki, who was in charge of the Human Rights Ministry, tendered his resignation, accusing the U.S. of serious human rights violations.

Muqtada al-Sadr, in his early thirties, has from the outset wanted a confrontational approach to the occupation forces. His support base is among the poorest Shiites, many of whom are concentrated in the slums of Baghdad. His father was an ayatollah, who was killed when the Baathists were in power. Many other prominent Shiites, including Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani have been more accommodating to the occupiers. Sadr is under pressure from influential Shia parties and personalities to avoid further confrontation. Even Iran may be putting pressure on him to negotiate. In a statement Sadr said defiantly that the "Mahdi" militia owing allegiance to him would not be disbanded. "Some Muslims are asking me to disband the Mahdi Army. It will not be disbanded," Sadr said.

In the first two weeks of April, the U.S. lost around 90 soldiers, the highest member in a month since the invasion started in March last year. The number of mercenaries killed has not been publicised. Senior U.S. officials in Iraq are now openly expressing their pessimism about the U.S.' ability to control events in the country. U.S. military officials continue to insist that they are fighting two different groups. "Let us see what this is not. This is not a general uprising. We are fighting two separate groups," said Gen. Mark Kimmit, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. In the U.S. and international media, the most common metaphor being used is "Vietnam".

Head of the Interim Coalition Authority Paul Bremer said that the upsurge in violence provided "a legal basis for American troops to continue their military control over the security situation in Iraq". Bremer had at last found an excuse for keeping U.S. forces indefinitely on Iraqi soil. Iraqis, including some members of the Interim Council, felt that the proposed transfer of power in June would lack legitimacy if U.S. troops continued to be stationed in Iraq. Bremer had explicitly stated on March 25 that the U.S. was definitely going to keep a huge force in Iraq irrespective of the wishes of the government that would be put in place in June this year. The U.S. is planning to set up 14 bases that would accommodate more than 100,000 troops on a permanent basis in Iraq.

U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced on April 15 that 20,000 soldiers who were scheduled to return home after a long and arduous tour of duty had been told to stay back in Iraq.

The number of U.S. troops in Iraq remains at 130,000, despite the Bush administration having announced earlier that their number would be reduced to 110,000. President George W. Bush, after having pledged to stay the course, has really no alternative but to increase the troop strength as the quagmire in Iraq gets wider and deeper.

Many of the countries in the so-called "alliance of the willing" have given notice about their intention to quit Iraq. The new socialist government in Spain has reiterated its resolve to withdraw Spanish forces if the United Nations does not take over by June this year. If Spain quits, the small Central American and Latin American countries such as El Salvador and Nicaragua, which have sent token contingents of troops to Iraq, are likely to follow suit. The German and French leaderships have indicated that even if the U.N. nominally takes charge of Iraq after June, their countries will not send in troops. The U.N., on its part, is reluctant to re-enter Iraq: recent comments by Secretary-General Kofi Annan indicate this. The spate of kidnappings of citizens of countries aligned to the U.S. is aimed at forcing their military presence out of the country. More than 40 foreign nationals were kidnapped in the second week of April. The killing of one of the three Italian mercenaries in the third week of April has put additional pressure on Italy to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

The three Japanese hostages who were threatened with execution may have been spared because of their pacifist views. All three were against their government's policy of sending troops to Iraq.

With elections round the corner in many West European countries, there will be second thoughts about the continued stationing of their troops in Iraq. The Labour Party in the United Kingdom is known to be divided sharply over Iraq. Romano Prodi, who will lead the Centre-Left in Italy, has been against the U.S. policies in Iraq from the outset.

The Bush administration's isolation is illustrated by the fact that the desperate circumstances it is in have forced it to turn to the Iranian government for help. Washington wants Teheran's help in persuading the recalcitrant Muqtada al-Sadr to back down.