BAGHDAD — Ear­lier this evening, Najaf police units, led by a Badr Orga­ni­za­tion com­man­der, descended on Moqtada’s office in Najaf, located on the main street approach­ing the Imam Ali Shrine. In the clash, Moqtada’s office, only four meters from the shrine, was burned to the ground, accord­ing to Abu Hazzim, who worked in the Najaf office and fled for his life to Sadr City. He says 23 peo­ple have been killed, most of them Moqtada’s sup­port­ers, while media reports put the num­ber between five and eight. Iraqi Army and police have been involved in the fight­ing. Many of the police and army units in the south are packed by Badr mili­ti­a­men with more loy­alty to the party than to the state. As I write, clashes con­tinue.
Moq­tada has put out an alert for the _jaysh al-Mahdi_ mili­tia to be on high alert in Sadr City, Najaf, Nas­riyah, Ama­rah and Basra. In Sadr City and Basra, _jaysh al-Mahdi_ mem­bers have asked to occupy/attack SCIRI and Badr offices, but so far they’ve been kept in check by Moq­tada and Fatah al-Sheikh, one of Moqtada’s sup­port­ers in par­lia­ment.
Or at least he was. Ear­lier this evening, Moq­tada gave the Jaa­fari gov­ern­ment an hour to explain, pull back or apol­o­gize for these attacks. He also called on his sup­port­ers in par­lia­ment, Fatah and oth­ers from the NICE list, to resign because “Moq­tada now con­sid­ers the gov­ern­ment ille­gal,” accord­ing to Abu Hazzim. Fatah has told me he has resigned. A press con­fer­ence is immi­nent.
[UPDATE 8÷25÷05 0032 +0300: Fatah al-Sheikh and 20 other mem­bers have “sus­pended” their duties in the gov­ern­ment and par­lia­ment until those respon­si­ble for the attacks have been pun­ished, he said. It is unclear how this devel­op­ment will affect tomorrow’s vote on the con­sti­tu­tion.]
This may blow over or it may blow up. But these are fast mov­ing events. Com­ing on the eve of the con­sti­tu­tion vote, as well as large clashes between Sunni insur­gents and U.S. and Iraqi forces in west­ern Bagh­dad that are also con­tin­u­ing, these events can only be seen as worrisome.