Baghdad -- In direct confrontation with the American-backed government in Iraq, thousands of supporters of the powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia took to the streets of Baghdad yesterday to protest the Iraqi army's assault on the southern port city of Basra, as intense fighting continued there for a third day.
In Basra, there seemed to be no breakthrough in the fighting by either side. As much as half of the city remained under militia control, hospitals in some parts of the city were reported full, and the violence continued to spread. Clashes were reported all over the city and in locations 12 miles south of Basra.
The Iraqi army's offensive in Basra is an important political test for the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and for American forces eager to demonstrate that the Iraqi units they have trained can fight effectively on their own. President Bush sought to portray the fighting in a positive light yesterday, declaring the offensive by al-Maliki's government a "bold decision."
But if the assault in Basra leads the Mahdi Army to break completely with its current cease-fire, which has helped to tamp down attacks in Iraq during the past year, there is a risk of escalating violence and of replaying 2004. That year, the militia fought intense battles with U.S. forces that destabilized the country.
The assault has already touched off violent reprisals by some outraged Mahdi supporters in other cities, including in Baghdad, where the boom of rocket fire rattled the city all day Wednesday and continued yesterday with reports of a rocket strike on the fortified Green Zone near the United States Embassy.
One American was killed in yesterday's attacks, a government employee whose identity was being withheld pending notification of relatives, the Associated Press reported. The news service also published a report saying that an American financial analyst had been killed Sunday in attacks on the Green Zone, but gave no source.
As a possible sign of the rising instability in the region, saboteurs blew up one of Iraq's two main oil export pipelines from Basra, Reuters reported. The oil pipelines were regular targets for insurgents earlier in the Iraqi conflict, but yesterday's sabotage was the first time in several years that the southern oil supply route had been disrupted.
In a speech at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, Bush said al-Maliki's decision to wage the offensive "shows his leadership and his commitment to enforce the law in an evenhanded manner."
"Iraqi forces planned this operation, and they deployed substantial extra forces for it," the president said. He said the offensive "builds on the security gains of the surge and demonstrates to the Iraqi people that their government is committed to protecting them."
Bush predicted that the operation would last for some time.
In Baghdad, close-packed crowds numbering perhaps 5,000 demonstrated in Sadr City, the focal point of the capital's protests, taking over the main street, chanting, dancing, holding up banners, and declaring their readiness to continue to oppose the Iraqi Army's attempt to wrest control of Basra from al-Sadr's Shiite militiamen, a major onslaught that began Tuesday.
"It is unfair," said one of the protesters, Jabbar Azem Hassan, 65. "They are killing our sons and they are harming innocent people. We need to reform the national government from all parts of the Iraqi populace."
Some of the protesters criticized the United States - al-Sadr considers the Americans occupiers - but most of their criticism was aimed at al-Maliki and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. Hakim leads the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which has emerged as a rival political force to al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and commands a rival militia, the Badr Organization.
The protesters criticized what they said was a strengthening alliance between Hakim's political group and the Iraqi government to squeeze Sadr from power. Maliki's government depends on support from Hakim's party, reducing the need for alliances with the Mahdi Army and making it easier for al-Maliki to move against it.
There were other, smaller demonstrations in Baghdad. Many people had come from all over Iraq to take part, according to witnesses.
Some of the signs and chants called for Hakim's execution, a measure of the animosity that has grown up between the Mahdi Army and Hakim's loyalists.
American officials have presented the attempts by the Iraqi army to secure Basra as an example of its ability to carry out a major operation on its own. But a failure there would be a serious embarrassment for the Iraqi government and for the army, as well as for American forces eager to demonstrate that the Iraqi units they have trained can fight effectively on their own.