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Sadrists in Green Zone standoff with soldiers

BAGHDAD — U.S. soldiers on Monday stopped five lawmakers loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as they were walking to a parking lot inside Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, one of the lawmakers said.

An Associated Press reporter witnessed the encounter.

He said the soldiers drove up in an SUV marked “police” and stopped the lawmakers, who included two women, just outside the building where they attended a session of the 275-seat parliament.

The soldiers asked the three male lawmakers to hand over the passes giving them access to the Green Zone, home to Iraq’s parliament as well as its government offices and the U.S. and British embassies.

The lawmakers obliged, but an argument broke out.

The Americans cleared the area as the argument was in progress but one of the lawmakers later told the AP that the argument lasted about 30 minutes and ended with the soldiers giving back the passes.

“You can call General [David] Petraeus on the phone and demand an apology,” one lawmaker, Saleh al-Aujaili, quoted a soldier as saying.

“I told him that the Sadrist bloc has no wish to speak with the American occupiers,” he said.

U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said the incident arose when a Peruvian guard approached a chauffeured car that stopped for the lawmakers at a “no stop” area near the gate of the complex housing the building where parliament meets.

One of the lawmakers threw the door open, striking the guard and later stepped out and pushed him, said Garver. He said only two lawmakers were involved in the incident. He identified them as Bahaa al-Araji and al-Aujaili, but did not say which one of the two pushed the guard.

The Green Zone police arrived at the scene within minutes and asked the lawmakers for their badges, which they returned immediately. They “let the [members of parliament] go with a caution to not load vehicles near the gate,” he said.

Security has been tightened in the Green Zone since the April suicide attack in the building where parliament meets. One lawmaker was killed.

But parliament members have complained of the heightened security, saying submitting to searches by non-Iraqi guards offends their dignity.

Parliament is expected this week to debate a draft legislation sponsored by the 30 Sadrist lawmakers for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign forces in Iraq and a freeze on their existing levels.

The Sadrists say they have secured the support of 144 lawmakers, but the draft was not expected to win the support of so many if it ever comes to a vote.

Militiamen from al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army fought American forces for much of 2004 in Baghdad and across a string of cities and towns in central and southern Iraq. They have kept a low profile since a major security push was launched in Baghdad three months ago, but dozens of the militiamen have been detained in pinpoint raids.