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Iraqi PM vows 'no retreat' against Basra militants

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged "no retreat" in the fight against Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra, as thousands of protesters demanded he resign over the crackdown and extremists fired rockets into the US-protected Green Zone.

Shiite militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr on Thursday called for a political solution to the burgeoning crisis and an end to the "shedding of Iraqi blood." But the statement, released by a close aide, stopped short of ordering his Mehdi Army militia to halt attacks on the Green Zone or stop fighting in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.

In a sign of the deteriorating security, gunmen in Baghdad seized a high-profile government spokesman from his home in a Shiite neighborhood, killing three of his bodyguards and torching his house. In a bid to curb the violence, Iraq's military ordered vehicles and pedestrians off the streets of the capital until tomorrow morning.

As Americans and Iraqis were scrambling to cope with the latest violence, the US State Department ordered all personnel at the US Embassy not to leave reinforced structures because of continued incoming rocket or mortar fire from suspected Shiite extremists angry over the Basra crackdown.

The campaign to rid Basra of lawless gangs and Shiite militias -- some believed tied to nearby Iran -- is a major test for al-Maliki, a Shiite, and for the Iraqi military.

In the Baghdad neighborhood of Kazimiyah, thousands of al-Sadr's followers denounced al-Maliki as a "new dictator" as they carried a coffin bearing a crossed-out picture of the US-backed prime minister. Thousands more also rallied in Sadr City, Baghdad's main Shiite district.

However, al-Maliki showed no sign of wavering.

"We have made up our minds to enter this battle, and we will continue until the end. No retreat," al-Maliki told Basra area tribal leaders in a speech broadcast nationwide on Iraqi state TV.
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