IRAQ: SHIA RESISTANCE

Robert Fisk: Bloodbath a bad omen for coalition forces

To the horror of the occupying powers in Iraq, the country's ever more bloody insurgency has at last spilled over into the majority Shi'ite Muslim community.

Coalition soldiers fought gunmen in the holy city of Najaf yesterday with the loss of at least 20 lives.

The shooting started after protesters gathered at the Spanish base on the outskirts of the city following the arrest of an aide to Muqtada al-Sadr, the young Shi'ite cleric whose "Army of Mehdi" has never before fired its guns.

The demonstrations had their roots in the decision of the US administrator, Paul Bremer, to close al-Sadr's small-
circulation weekly newspaper, al-Hawza, in Baghdad a week ago for "inciting violence against coalition forces".

It now seems that his decision to shut down the paper has incited violence on a far greater scale than Bremer could have imagined.

Yet he managed to say all the wrong things again yesterday. "This morning, a group of people in Najaf have crossed the line and they have moved to violence," he announced. "This will not be tolerated by the Iraqi people and by the Iraqi security forces."

The trouble is that Bremer has said all this before - but about Sunni insurgents - and his warnings almost always increase the anger of his antagonists and bring no end
to violence.