Showdown With The Rebel

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In Baghdad, authorities wavered between efforts to keep him at arm's length and attempts to invite him into the political process. The Bush Administration regards him as a thug and refuses to engage with someone it sees as a carbon copy of Iran's ruling mullahs. Nor do Western officials in Baghdad trust his tactics. "We've been watching him take over the city of Najaf bit by bit by bit," says an official. "That experience has given us cause to question his credibility when he makes promises and to wonder whether he is prepared to play in a political process marked by votes."

Nevertheless, Iraqi leaders in the interim government who are desperate for national reconciliation see the value of according a role to al-Sadr and his wide following. When the interim government regained sovereignty, Prime Minister Allawi opened talks with the cleric, even offering clemency for the murder charge against him. For weeks, Fa'oud Massoum, the chairman of the committee organizing the national conference to choose an interim legislature, tried to persuade al-Sadr to send representatives, but he has refused.

Al-Sadr also sees profit in lashing out at Allawi's fragile government. He has kept up his barrage of sermons criticizing the new leadership's failure to improve civil services and security. But some who know al-Sadr say his decision to resume combat had little to do with citizens' grievances and a lot to do with the improving ability of Iraqi government forces to challenge his control in Najaf. Since the hand-off, the strength of the Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi police officers has grown; they are stopping thieves, arresting drug dealers, slowly winning the loyalty of Najaf's embattled citizens.

The Mahdi militia regarded the new forces as a rival gang on its turf. Two weeks ago, government security men arrested one of al-Sadr's closest aides in nearby Karbala, and the truce unraveled from there. Al-Sadr's militiamen then accused U.S. Marines, who have recently taken over responsibility for policing Najaf, of breaking the cease-fire's rules by moving into parts of the city that were supposed to be off limits to them. U.S. officials put the blame on the militia: in the early hours of Aug. 5, Mahdi fighters assaulted a police station with such ferocity that the Iraqis inside had to call for U.S. help. The war was on.

Making matters worse was the absence of Sistani, who left his home in Najaf two weeks ago for medical treatment in London. Al-Sadr supporters say the U.S. was exploiting his absence to crack down on the populist cleric. But Sistani's associates say al-Sadr was the one taking advantage of the ayatullah's departure to intensify his campaign against the U.S. Just before undergoing angioplasty, the Grand Ayatullah issued a strong statement calling on all parties to stop the fighting.