BAGHDAD — Iraqi police responded with an iron fist Friday to the violence that threw the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala into chaos earlier this week, arresting more than 300 people in a show of force against Shiite militias.
Iraqi officials say Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ordered the arrests, a possible indication that Maliki, a Shiite who's under intense international pressure to reconcile political rifts between Sunni Muslims and Shiites, intends to crack down on the Mahdi Army. Witnesses in Karbala blame the militia, loosely controlled by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr, for Tuesday's violence during a religious ceremony.
But an official with the Sadrists, the Mahdi Army's political wing, said Friday that the Iraqi police were arresting anyone who was affiliated with the militia, including politicians and government workers who weren't involved in the violence. The official asked that he not be named because he wasn't allowed to speak on behalf of his party.
Salah al Obaidi, a spokesman for Sadr, echoed those concerns during Friday prayers. He warned security officials that they shouldn't arrest Mahdi Army members or Sadrists unless they played a role in the violence. But he also reprimanded the Mahdi Army, calling the violence in Karbala "a big failure in the great jihad.".....
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