Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 6 April 2004 — US administrators in Iraq declared a Shiite cleric an “outlaw” yesterday and announced a warrant for his arrest, heightening a confrontation after battles between his supporters and coalition troops killed at least 52 Iraqis and nine coalition troops, including eight Americans.

US officials would not say when they would move to arrest Moqtada Sadr, a move that could potentially spark further clashes.

Meanwhile, US troops surrounded the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, poised to launch a major operation in response to the grisly slaying and mutilation of four Americans by insurgents there last week. A Marine was killed yesterday in the Fallujah area, the military said, without providing further details.

The showdown with Sadr threatens to increase tensions with Iraq’s Shiite majority at a time when US troops are heavily burdened with the battle with guerrillas’ bloody insurgency. But US authorities appear to be hoping that the Shiite public will not rally around the cleric.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said the potential for violence depended on “whether (Sadr) decides to come peacefully or whether he decides to come not peacefully. That choice is the choice of Mr. Moqtada Sadr.”

Sadr, a young firebrand cleric who frequently denounces the US occupation in his sermons, was holed up yesterday in the main mosque in the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad, and vowed to resist.

The Americans “have the money, weapons and huge numbers, but these things are not going to weaken our will because God is with us,” he said in a statement sent to the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera.

“We don’t fear death, and martyrdom gives us dignity from God,” he said.

Several hundred of his armed militiamen controlled the city, holding its police station and blocking off a road leading to the mosque, which was surrounded by his gunmen.

Sheikh Abu Mahdi Al-Rubaie, a 35-year-old Sadr follower at the mosque, warned that any US move to seize Sadr would be “a very dangerous thing.”

“They will pay a heavy price. We will not allow them to enter Kufa ... We are ready to lay down our lives for Sayed,” he said, using the Arabic word for “master” that Sadr’s followers refer to him by.

US officials said the warrant against Sadr — on charges of murdering a rival cleric — was issued months ago by an Iraqi judge and that Iraqis only wanted now to carry it out. But the crackdown on a fierce opponent of the US administration comes as the June 30 deadline approaches for the transfer of power from the Americans to the Iraqis.

President Bush yesterday portrayed Sadr’s removal as a step for protecting democracy. “This is one person that is deciding that rather than allowing democracy to flourish, he’s going to exercise force,” he told reporters. “We just can’t let it stand.”

Paul Bremer, the top US administrator in Iraq, declared Sadr an “outlaw.”

“He is attempting to establish his authority in the place of the legitimate authority. We will not tolerate this,” he said.

Clashes on Sunday — sparked by the arrest last week of a Sadr aide accused in the same murder — were a surprise show of power by Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, previously seen as a rag-tag force.

Fighting was particularly fierce in Sadr City, a Shiite-majority neighborhood in Baghdad, where militiamen ambushed US soldiers, killing eight and sparking battles that killed 30 Iraqis and wounded 110 others. It took a column of tanks to bring quiet to the area and force the militiamen out of police stations they had seized after police fled.

Outside the city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, firing between militiamen and Spanish-led coalition troops killed one Salvadoran soldier and 22 Iraqis.

Violence also broke out yesterday morning in another Shiite neighborhood of the capital, Al-Shoala, where militiamen clashed with a US patrol. An American armored vehicle was seen burning, and an Iraqi man was seen running off with a heavy machine gun apparently taken from the vehicle. A US Apache helicopter was hit by small arms fire and responded with a barrage of machine gun rounds, the US military said.

Militiamen also traded fire with British troops in the southern cities of Basra and Amara, sparking fights that killed three Iraqis, witnesses said.

Gunmen also held sway in the streets of Najaf, prompting police to flee their stations, said the Spanish Defense Ministry, whose troops control the region. Witnesses said the police returned later.

The Spanish bases in Diwaniya and Najaf came under sporadic mortar fire overnight Sunday but there were no injuries or material damage, the ministry said.

Sadr’s main support is among young seminary students and Shiites, devoted to him because of his anti-US stance and the memory of his father, a Shiite religious leader gunned down by suspected Saddam agents in 1999. The arrest warrant against Sadr is on charges of involvement in the April 2003 murder of Abdel-Majid Al-Khoei, a Shiite cleric who was stabbed to death by a mob in in Najaf soon after former President Saddam Hussein’s fall, said coalition spokesman Dan Senor.

— Additional input from agencies