Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 5 April 2004 — At least 28 people were killed, including four Salvadoran soldiers, and 200 were wounded yesterday as backers of a radical Shiite leader clashed with troops of the US-led coalition in Iraq.

The deadliest confrontation took place outside the city of Najaf pitting supporters of firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr against Spanish-led troops. At least 24 people were killed, including the Salvadorans.

Other clashes took place in Baghdad and the southeastern city of Amara, where four people died in fighting with British soldiers.

In an ominous development that threatens to widen the rift between Iraq’s Shiite majority and the occupation forces, Sadr told his supporters yesterday to “terrorize” the enemy as demonstrations were now pointless.

“There is no use for demonstrations, as your enemy loves to terrify and suppress opinions, and despises people,” Sadr said in a statement distributed by his office in Kufa, south of Baghdad.

“Terrorize your enemy, as we cannot remain silent over its violations,” he said, although it was not clear whether Sadr was literally calling on his followers to resort to violence.

But Shiite spiritual leader Ali Al-Sistani appealed for calm and urged Shiite demonstrators to resolve their differences with coalition forces through negotiation.

The coalition, meanwhile, named two staunch opponents of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to head a new Defense Ministry and national intelligence service.

The clashes outside Najaf marked the most dangerous faceoff between the coalition and Iraqi Shiites since the invasion.

They coincided with demonstrations in Baghdad and the southern port of Basra as Shiite radicals pressed their demands for the coalition to reopen a newspaper close to Sadr that was shut down last week for 60 days on charges of inciting violence.

The militants also want the release of a top Sadr aide, Mustafa Al-Yacoubi, who was detained by the coalition on Saturday in connection with the murder of a rival cleric last April.

In Najaf, Dr. Hassan Al-Dulami, head of health services, told reporters: “There are at least 20 dead, including two policemen, and 200 wounded in the city’s six hospitals.”

In Madrid, the Spanish Defense Ministry said four Salvadoran soldiers belonging to the Spanish-led Plus Ultra Brigade were killed and nine other wounded in the clashes.

Accounts varied on how the fighting outside Najaf was ignited.

An agency correspondent said the clashes erupted when demonstrators hurled rocks at a convoy of six vehicles from the Spanish brigade and started shouting at them: “No, no to America. No, no to Israel.” The convoy pulled back and then opened fire.

The demonstrators were marching from Najaf to the neighboring town of Kufa. But they had planned to stop at the Plus Ultra base to demand the release of Yacoubi, although Spanish troops in Najaf have denied arresting him.

“The Spanish base was attacked around noon (0800 GMT). The assailants fired on our soldiers and they riposted by respecting rules of engagement,” said Col. Carlos Harradon, a spokesman for the Plus Utra Brigade which includes Salvadoran, Honduran and Dominican soldiers.

In other incidents, four people were killed and eight wounded in clashes between British forces and Sadr militiamen in the southeastern city of Amara, hospital sources said.

In Baghdad’s northeastern suburb of Sadr City, 10 people were injured in clashes between US forces and Sadr militiamen who seized a number of police stations.

In northern Iraq, a car bomb exploded in the oil center of Kirkuk, wounding five Iraqi civilians and damaging a US military vehicle as US troops combed the area for a suspect vehicle, police chief Shirko Halim said.

In Baghdad, a senior coalition spokesman said the disturbances started earlier when a vehicle leaving a camp of the paramilitary Iraqi Civil Defense Corps came under fire, wounding some of the occupants.

— Additional input from agencies