BAGHDAD, Iraq - Shiite Muslim anger against Americans spilled into Friday Prayers in Sadr City, the poor Baghdad district where two Iraqis and two American soldiers were killed Thursday night.
  The violence and subsequent public outrage raised fears of new dangers to United States troops from the followers of Moktada al-Sadr, a young anti-American Shiite cleric. Up to now, the main threat to American forces has come from loyalists to Saddam Hussein.

  A seething throng of perhaps 10,000 people gathered on Friday to pay respects to the two men they believe were killed by American forces the night before.

  "No, no, to America!" they chanted as wooden coffins holding the remains of the men were paraded along a main street in this impoverished neighborhood of some two million people, once called Saddam City and now renamed Sadr City in part for Mr. Sadr's father, a popular cleric who was assassinated in 1999 on what many believe were Mr. Hussein's orders. 

  Sheik Abdel Hadi al-Daraji, an aide to the younger Mr. Sadr, delivered the sermon at Friday Prayers and issued a defiant demand: no American soldiers should be allowed inside Sadr City.

  "America, which calls itself the supporter of democracy, is nothing but a big terrorist organization that is leading the world with its terrorism and arrogance," Mr. Daraji said.

  For the last six months, the greatest threat to United States soldiers has come from common criminals or loyalists to Mr. Hussein, who belongs to the Sunni branch of Islam, a minority in Iraq. The Shiites, who were repressed under Mr. Hussein, have been more supportive and have rarely been thought responsible for attacks on American soldiers.

  But tensions have been growing for several days between American troops and Mr. Sadr's followers, who represent only a fraction of Iraq's majority Shiite population. If the Shiites turned in large numbers against the American occupation, the effect could be explosive.

  On Wednesday, 1,000 or more of Mr. Sadr's followers blocked off streets in front of the American headquarters in downtown Baghdad in a tense but largely peaceful demonstration demanding the release of another cleric allied with Mr. Sadr. 

  The cleric had been arrested after guns and ammunition were found in his mosque, according to Lt. Col. George Krivo, an American military spokesman.

  Despite the visibility of Mr. Sadr's followers, there is some debate about the extent of his actual influence among Shiites, many of whom follow more moderate religious leaders. It is not hard to find people, even in Sadr City, who speak openly against Mr. Sadr.

  "You put a badge on your chest and wrap a piece of green cloth on your head and you become the defender of the faith," said Saad Khudair, owner of a barbershop. "It's not right. They are thugs."

  Colonel Krivo also cautioned against making too much of either the incident or Mr. Sadr, who is about 30, and his followers, many of whom are poor young men without jobs.

  "Let's not paint the whole area, or the whole two million plus people who are living there, with the same brush," he said. "There are specific areas there that are challenging, just as there are specific areas throughout the country that are challenging. So be careful not to generalize too much about this area."

  The spark for the recent violence appeared to be a suicide attack on Thursday morning at an Iraqi police station, in which a bomber crashed through a gate in a car and detonated a powerful bomb, killing at least eight other people. 

  Several hours later, United States troops surrounded Mr. Sadr's headquarters several blocks away. Local residents and clerics said that the soldiers entered the headquarters and that several of them were beaten up and had their guns taken away.

  Iraqi witnesses said that militia members then blocked off the street in front of the headquarters, and that a short time later three Humvees with Americans drove up to the blockade. 

  Accounts differ as to what happened next. Colonel Krivo said the soldiers arrived after several people requested aid. 

  "There were some people that came out, met with the forces and said, `Please come in. We need to show you something important,' " he said. It was at that point that people in the crowd attacked, the colonel said.

  In addition to the two American soldiers who were killed, four others were wounded. Colonel Krivo said a special unit was called in to rescue them, sparking an exchange of gunfire that witnesses said lasted an hour or more. 

  "From our reports, we believe this was a deliberate and planned ambush," Colonel Krivo said. "This was not just a hasty act."

  The soldiers faced an arsenal of weapons that included small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, as well as explosives, Colonel Krivo added.

  But many people in the neighborhood said the soldiers fired first. 

  "The Americans started shooting randomly," said Hassan Khadhim, 22, owner of a shop next to where the shootout took place. "Mostly, they were shooting in the air to frighten people. So our people shot back at them." 

  Some witnesses, however, agreed that it was an ambush. 

  "Moktada's people were hiding behind the mural waiting for them," said Muhammad Kadhim, 31, a post office employee. "When the Americans came they started shooting at them, and all the Americans were trying to do was just to leave."

  The mural to which he referred is a huge billboard on a traffic circle painted with the faces of Mr. Sadr's father, Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, and Muhammad Baqr al-Sadr, an Islamic scholar and founder of the religious Dawa Party who was executed by Mr. Hussein in 1980. The two men were not immediately related. One of the two Iraqis killed Thursday night was shot at the base of the mural, witnesses said. 

  Despite the proximity of the bombing and the later shootout, Colonel Krivo said there was no evidence to suggest they were linked in any way, though he said he could not rule it out.

  Given the similarity to previous bombings, suspicion fell immediately on pro-Hussein forces or foreign fighters who have come to Iraq to battle Americans and who are generally held to be responsible for much of the chaos in Iraq. 

  Colonel Krivo said that American troops would continue patrols in Sadr City, and that he did not believe the incident on Thursday marked the start of any widening confrontation.

  Still, a confrontation with Mr. Sadr and his followers does not seem out of the question.

  American officials have long eyed him with concern, for his anti-American oratory, his close ties with radical clerics in Iran and his insistence on establishing an Islamic state in Iraq. 

  Perhaps the biggest concern is his militia, the Jaish Mehdi. Though the American authorities have banned militias, his followers have roamed the streets of the neighborhood over the last two days carrying rifles - some apparently those that were donated by Americans to Iraqi police officers - grenades and even rocket-propelled grenades.

  At Friday Prayers they acted as armed security guards, some planted on rooftops with machine guns. One man surveyed the crowd with a telescope. 

  There was no Iraqi police officer in sight.



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  Aid Workers Leaving Iraq, Fearing They Are Targets
  By Ian Fisher and Elizabeth Becker
  The New York Times

  Sunday 12 October 2003

  BAGHDAD - The great majority of foreign aid workers in Iraq, fearing they have become targets of the postwar violence, have quietly pulled out of the country in the past month, leaving essential relief work to their Iraqi colleagues and slowing much of the reconstruction effort.

  Projects that have been abandoned, at least temporarily, because of the exodus include efforts to dig village wells, repair electrical systems and refurbish health clinics and local hospitals - all of which could bring much needed services to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. 

  The largest reduction in staff has been at the United Nations operation in Iraq, which after two bombings at its main compound since August cut its work force to 35 from a peak of 600 in August. 

  Nearly every other relief organization has made some reductions, saying that parts of Iraq are now highly risky, between unpredictable spasms of bombing and shooting and high levels of street crime. There have been two killings of aid workers since July, three grenade attacks on aid groups in the last month and at least two carjackings. 

  Doctors Without Borders, founded by a French group, is weighing whether to proceed with plans to build two more medical clinics, in addition to the three it already runs. Another French group shut down a program for children. The International Committee of the Red Cross has greatly reduced its system to help Iraqis find missing relatives and has cut back on medical assistance to hospitals and clinics. 

  The United Nations Development Program has put off major reconstruction of electrical systems, and some groups, like Oxfam International, a private charity concerned with fighting poverty, have pulled out their foreign workers altogether. 

  Charles Heatly, a spokesman for the American-led interim administration in Iraq, played down the effect on the overall reconstruction in Iraq, saying the major infrastructure repairs were being carried out by large contracting companies. 

  "Yes, its regrettable that some of the most accomplished N.G.O.'S, such as the I.C.R.C., have scaled back their efforts," he said. "But they are still here and we are committed to continue to work with them." 

  It is a difficult choice, aid groups say, whether to stay in Iraq now that most of their work has shifted from immediate life-saving measures to longer-term reconstruction projects that could nonetheless improve Iraqis' lives considerably. 

  The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is normally the first to join these dangerous situations and the last to leave, has reduced its work force to 30 from 130 at its peak. The committee, based in Geneva, has been committed to Iraq since 1980, offering its services throughout the Persian Gulf war of 1991, the ensuing years when Iraq was under United Nations sanctions, and during the war last spring. But it began pulling out its staff after a Sri Lankan technician was killed in July. 

  "We are absolutely committed to staying on and carrying on but we have to react to the current situation," said Florian Westphal, a spokesman for the group in Geneva. "One of the most regrettable consequences is that with fewer staff we carry out fewer activities." 

  The group now restricts itself to providing help in medical emergencies and visiting detainees and prisoners of war to ensure that they are afforded their rights under the Geneva Conventions. "If we don't visit the detainees and help them stay in touch with their relatives, no one else can do it," Mr. Westphal said.

  The violence against foreigners continues. On Thursday, José Antonio Bernal Gómez, the deputy intelligence officer at the Spanish Embassy, was assassinated after he opened the door of his home to a man dressed as a Shiite cleric. 

  Normally proud to show off their achievements in the press and to donors, aid workers have taken down signs in front of their offices and stickers off their cars. They seldom speak to reporters. Few among them are willing to say how many are based in the country, admitting only that more than half have left, leaving mainly managers overseeing budgets and teams of Iraqi workers.

  The aid workers who remain are taking greater precautions, traveling less, increasing protection at their homes and offices, relying more on two-way radios and staying away from the larger hotels. Most say they have not yet hired armed guards. 

  They say the atmosphere can be deceptively calm. "You don't feel insecurity," said Thomas Dehermann, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders, which has maintained a limited program in Iraq. "You feel like you are just working and - boom! - it happens."

  A further complication is the question of whether smaller aid groups, unlike the United Nations, are actual targets for terror attacks, or mistaken as part of the American occupation forces. "There is some confusion, which is the biggest difficulty working here," Mr. Dehermann said. "Everybody is considered a subcontractor working for the U.S., which is completely wrong." 

  Enfants du Monde, a French aid group, closed down a center for street children, after a dispute with some of the children led an angry neighbor to tell people in the area that the group was part of the American-led occupation. 

  "After that, we were quite afraid," said Michel Savel, the group's program coordinator. In recent weeks, the group scaled back in a telling way: Three of six foreign aid workers left, one replaced with a full-time security adviser. 

  The biggest hole was caused by the flight of more than 550 United Nations workers. 

  After the bombing on Aug. 19 of the United Nations headquarters here that killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of mission, and 21 other people, the organization has come to rely on its 4,233 Iraqi employees to deliver essential services. That includes bringing about 110,000 tons of food a month through the World Food Program; about 3 million gallons of water a day to Baghdad and Basra through the United Nations Children's Fund, and more than 550,000 tons of fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides for winter crops. 

  "One of the fallouts of our evacuation is we lost some of our most skilled professionals in the field," said William Orme, a spokesman for the United Nations Development Program, which repairs infrastructure. "On the positive side, we have Iraqis in positions of responsibility who are able to carry out the bulk of the immediate repairs." 

  Aid officials said Iraqis were more than capable of assuming greater roles in their country's recovery. The country director for CARE, Margaret Hassan, is an Iraqi citizen who oversees 8 foreign staff members and 60 Iraqis.

  "Even though security remains a major concern - not only for foreigners but for Iraqis - I do think the rebuilding of Iraq must be done overwhelmingly by Iraqis," said Peter D. Bell, president of CARE U.S.A. 

  -------

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