Iraq News

Baghdad 'Iron hand' cleric issues fatwa amid chaos

Baghdad's most powerful Shia cleric warned yesterday that he would use a "hand of iron" to impose an extreme vision of Islam that could seriously challenge America's secular ambitions for Iraq.

Sheikh Mohammed al-Fartousi, a youthful hardliner, said he would enforce a new fatwa that bans alcohol, commands women to wear veils and orders cinemas to close.

The sheikh appears to have considerable popular support in the vast, impoverished Shia district in eastern Baghdad formerly known as Saddam City, where his supporters stepped in swiftly to fill the power vacuum after the war.

Sheikh Fartousi, 31, admitted having up to 1,000 armed, former soldiers under his control, several of whom were guarding his office yesterday at the small al-Hekma mosque. While US troops continue to patrol most of Baghdad, none was in evidence in the Shia district yesterday.

As the GOP Prepares to Allow Automatic Weapons in the US, US Army Banning Them in Iraq

Russia, Others Block UN Vote Giving US and UK Control of Iraq

US Losing Battle For Iraq Hearts and Minds

Five-hour gas lines, no electricity, no law and order

In the southern city of Basra, the military was able to get some electricity to about half the city fairly quickly, topping prewar levels. But now the occupying forces are struggling to get clean water to residents and to contain a cholera outbreak.

Dock workers in nearby Umm Qasr are growing frustrated with America's failure to pay them any more than a $20 emergency wage. Officials voice concern that the Pentagon's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance had better start paying salaries soon or America's credibility will go down the drain and create an opening for anti-American Muslim clerics.

Soldiers helping to rebuild schools in Najaf have been pelted with stones. Anti-American graffiti around Baghdad is growing more vitriolic. Thousands of government workers converged on a capital square this week, desperate to get one of the $20 emergency payments that American officials were handing out.

As the days without enough power, fuel, food and water drag on, there is a widening perception gap between the Americans trying to get things running and the Iraqis suffering through the shortages: Americans see the glass half-full; Iraqis see it mostly empty.

Iraqi Politicians to Issue a Protest of Occupation Rule

Iraq's main political groups said tonight that they were drafting a formal statement of protest to the American and British authorities over their plans to declare an occupation authority in Iraq, which would delay the rapid turnover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.

NATO Backs Polish Iraq Occupation

Earlier this month, Washington asked Warsaw to take over the military administration of the central sector of the country in recognition of Poland's role in the US-led military action.

Iraqi Government Delayed

U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said on Wednesday an Iraqi national conference to choose an interim authority would most likely be held in July, more than a month later than originally planned.

US to revise UN Iraq resolution

During Tuesday's four-hour debate, members raised numerous questions and made numerous demands for changes to the 15-page text, diplomats said.

British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, whose country was a co-sponsor of the draft, warned there were limits to the changes available.

"They are still asking for further concessions, which I don't think the co-sponsors are going to make," he said.

Human Rights Watch has said the draft fails to protect human rights inside Iraq or deal with past abuses, and the international financier, George Soros, says the resolution gives excessive powers to the occupying powers.

The draft submitted on Tuesday was already a revised version of America's original text, which prompted objections by other powers last week.

Both Russia and France are using their veto power to force revisions.