Fighting Flares in Streets of Basra

BAGHDAD — Fighting filled the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Saturday after black-clad militia members loyal to an anti-American cleric stormed through the streets skirmishing with British troops.

There were also deadly clashes in the southern city of Amarah and in Karbala, where U.S. tanks entered from two directions, blocking roads leading to the city center.

The turbulence in the south was an indicator of the depth of discontent with the U.S.-led occupation, especially among young and impoverished Iraqis who feel that in Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr they have found a leader who will stand up for them against the Americans.

Five coalition troops were injured in Saturday’s clashes in Basra and between 30 and 40 of Sadr’s fighters were killed or wounded, a senior coalition official said. News agencies reported at least two Iraqi deaths.

On Friday, a Basra cleric connected to Sadr offered rewards up to $300 for the capture or killing of coalition troops.

The cleric, Sheik Abdulsattar Bahadli, angered by the abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, also told worshipers at Friday prayers that it was acceptable to kidnap a female soldier and use her as a sex slave.

The violence in southern Iraq occurred as United Nations special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi continued discussions with the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council, tribal sheiks and other groups about how to form an interim government to rule the country between June 30, when the U.S. is scheduled to turn over power, and the inauguration of the first elected government, which is expected in early 2005.

After meeting with the Governing Council, Brahimi told reporters that he assured council members that the proposals he had made to the U.N. Security Council last month did not represent his own ideas but “was our reading of what we heard from a very, very large number of Iraqis.”

The council’s sensitivity to Brahimi’s suggestions, which essentially would write them out of the picture, and the dwindling period before the hand-over raise the question of whether all parties can agree on and appoint a government in the next seven weeks.

In his report to the U.N., the career diplomat recommended creating a government made up of a president with limited powers and a prime minister with two deputies. He also backed the creation of a national conference that would play an advisory role.

The arrangement is predicated on the dissolution of the current Governing Council and the implementation of a law that would sharply limit the power of the interim government during the six to seven months of its existence.

But some Governing Council members wish to retain their power. Others, such as Salama Khafaji, an independent Shiite member, worry that without a legislature there will be no checks on the government.

Equally vexing to them, some possible Brahimi nominees were identified by the media, leaving council members feeling that they would have little say in the choice.

Brahimi sought to reassure them that no such decisions had been made, spokesman Ahmed Fawzi said. “People think he’s coming with a precooked plan, a list of candidates -- that is all completely untrue.”

On Brahimi’s last visit, his movements were restricted by the security situation throughout the country -- which has eased somewhat, but not in the populous south, where Sadr is using his Al Mahdi militia to destabilize the Shiite shrine cities of Karbala, Kufa and Najaf as well as Basra, the nation’s second-largest city.

In the fighting in Basra, the militia set up makeshift blockades of rocks and burning tires. Gunmen assaulted the governor’s building, and British troops moved in to provide reinforcement for the guards and take control of the building.

British armored vehicles pursued large numbers of gunmen. When they reached the cramped alleys in some of the poorer neighborhoods, troops traded gunfire with the militia fighters.

Residents kept their children home from school, and many city stores were shuttered.

Elsewhere in Iraq, attackers set off a bomb near the police commissioner’s home in Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad. Three people died, including at least one woman. The commissioner, Muaed Aaid, survived, but he said, “I am taking my family somewhere else because those insurgents will try again to kill me. They are saying I am a spy.”

Near Karbala, one Polish soldier was killed and two were injured in a road accident.

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Special correspondents Kaddhim Yassiri in Basra and Faris Mehdawi in Baqubah contributed to this report.