Cracks in Sadr's army

"They are severely punished, even whipped, if they do something wrong," said a foot soldier named Abu Haidar. "If those expelled continue their bad behavior, they are liquidated."

He said he had heard of 30 people having been killed since October.

The Baghdad security plan has left the Al Mahdi militia acutely aware of its enemies. Members are mindful of all those they believe are seeking to weaken them, particularly their Shiite rival, the Badr Brigade, which has evaded a similar crackdown despite being implicated in sectarian killings.

Abu Haidar also worried that the Americans had seized the opportunity to develop an intelligence network in Sadr City since establishing a base on the edge of the district last month. He believed that it was no accident that nightly raids in the community, which forms the bedrock of the Al Mahdi militia's support, had resulted in a string of arrests of top members.

"They come find people not to put them in jail, but to recruit them as a source of information. There are \o7alas\f7," Abu Haidar said, using the Iraqi slang word for informer.

Still, on a trip to Sadr City on Friday, the militia looked stronger than ever. Sadr's image gazed down from advertisements for cellphones and signs chiding people not to litter.

Inside its dense blocks, only a few policemen were seen. Al Mahdi fighters in civilian clothes supervised roadblocks. One road was punctuated by eight such checkpoints put up for Friday prayers. Al Mahdi ushers in lemon-colored shirts watched the crowd at the Sadiq Mosque.

Many Al Mahdi fighters now spend their time distributing fuel and supplies to Sadr City residents. But one fighter said he missed going out to round up people whom movement supporters call suspected terrorists, but who critics say are Sunnis not involved in the insurgency. The curtailment of such missions has resulted in a drop in the number of death squad victims being found on the street. After months during which 30, 40, sometimes 70, bodies would be collected daily, the number has dropped to about 15 a day.

Abu Haidar, the fighter, said that up until the freeze he would occasionally go out in search of Sunni militants. The Al Mahdi men would leave with walkie-talkies in two or three cars. They would grab the suspect and bring him back to Sadr City for questioning. The preferred car for these missions was a Toyota Super Saloon -- called the \o7batta\f7, Arabic for duck -- because it could fit four people in the trunk.

Some of the terrorists wanted to be martyred, he said, and the Al Mahdi fighters happily obliged. When the fighters killed someone, they used the slang term \o7tiggaa\f7 to refer to the execution, Abu Haidar said.

Even now, if the Al Mahdi militia catches someone in Sadr City it believes to be a terrorist, Abu Haidar said, fighters mete out justice. He then mentioned the shooting of a suspected would-be suicide bomber on a minibus a little over a week ago.

"If we receive information about an attempt by a terrorist, we will make a preemptive strike," he promised. "We don't go after normal guys."

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ned.parker@latimes.com

Two special correspondents contributed to this report.