Scattered attacks targeting police and civilians killed at least 30 Iraqis on Monday as populist Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr lashed out at Iraqi politicians and U.S. officials for failing to stop the violence.
The attacks followed a grim Sunday in which more than 50 people were killed and close to 300 were injured by bombs and mortars in the vast Shiite slum of Sadr City.
“When things reach a certain point, then nobody can control the reins,” said Abdulsattar Nasri, a 47-year-old lawyer, as people gathered at a nearby hospital Monday to receive the bodies of their relatives.
Four men were found Monday hanged near the Jolan athletic club in Sadr City, each with a note pinned to the chest spelling out “traitor,” in what appeared to be retribution by locals for the previous night’s attacks, police said. Eyewitnesses told authorities that two of the men were captured wearing explosive belts and the other two were caught firing mortar rounds against targets in Sadr City, according to police.
Eleven more bodies were found scattered throughout Baghdad neighborhoods. Attacks in the north killed several others.
Amid rising impatience at daily attacks, Sadr vowed to confront attacks on Shiites “militarily, religiously and ideologically,” during a speech in the holy city of Najaf.
“We’re not weak,” Sadr said. “But I don’t want to be dragged into a civil war.”
Speaking to reporters, Sadr criticized the American administration for interfering in Iraqi affairs, and the Iraqi government for being weak and self-involved.
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The politicians “are busy. `I want to be president, I want to be minister.’ They forget the people, and they are busy with their [own] interests,” he said.
In a retort to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s statement last week that the U.S. would rely on Iraqi forces in case of an all-out civil war, Sadr added: “Whether there is or isn’t a civil war, we don’t want you to interfere in Iraqi affairs whatsoever.”
In his speech, the cleric did not blame Sunni Arabs for the attacks but urged them publicly to distance themselves from the insurgency.
On Monday, the British government announced a 10 percent reduction of British forces in the country, saying Iraqi security forces are becoming more capable of handling security.
Britain’s nearly 8,000-troop force is concentrated in four predominantly Shiite provinces of the south, an area that has experienced less violence than the Sunni provinces north and west of Baghdad.
Also Monday, the American military confirmed the death of a soldier Monday in eastern Baghdad, and a Marine assigned to 2-28 Brigade Combat Team on Sunday, in Anbar province.
A former judge from Saddam Hussein’s regime admitted Monday to sentencing 148 Shiites to death in the 1980s, but maintained they received a fair trial and had confessed to trying to assassinate the Iraqi leader.
Another co-defendant also defended the crackdown against Shiites, saying it was a legal response to the assassination attempt.
Hussein and his half brother, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, are expected to testify in the next session on Wednesday.