Unexpectedly, the police force, controlled by a rival Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, withdrew. Armed guards from the nearby office of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani then fired on Sadr's men, witnesses said. Troops arrived, mainly from the Interior Ministry, which is controlled by the Supreme Council. In the melee, four of Sadr's followers were killed.
Amid the chaos, some protesters entered Sadr's office and set furniture and carpets on fire. The arson enraged Sadr's men. After 10 p.m., they were working the phones, calling followers in Najaf and offices in Baghdad and southern provinces.
"Each person called another," Dulaim said. "From the hour of the event, until the morning, we were on the phone."
The response was swift, igniting long-smoldering differences between Sadr's movement and the Supreme Council, which is led by Abdul Aziz Hakim, the oldest surviving son of Muhsin Hakim, one of Iraq's most respected grand ayatollahs.
Like much in Iraq, the rivalry draws on history and power. To varying degrees, both groups draw legitimacy through family names, and both claim leadership of the country's long-repressed Shiite community. The Supreme Council has sought that role through engagement in the U.S.-backed government, exercising influence over Iraq's security forces. Sadr's movement is represented in the government, too, but it has fashioned itself as an outsider. Its rhetoric is anti-occupation; its constituency is the street.
To Sadr's followers, the Supreme Council is beholden to Iran, where it was based in exile, its members living in relative security while the Sadr group suffered in Iraq under Hussein, the Sadr men contend.
To the Supreme Council, Sadr is a lightweight, lacking the religious credentials, seasoning and political savvy to navigate the challenges the Shiite community faces. Even now, many are reluctant to even mention Sadr's name, fearful of giving him credibility.
As the calls went out, the Supreme Council's offices were targeted in Amarah, Diwaniyah, Basra and Baghdad. In the mixed Sunni-Shiite town of Baqubah, Sadr's men attacked another office. As they headed toward it, the loudspeaker at a Sunni mosque urged the militia to fight against "those who want to divide Iraq."
"If they attack our symbols," Kurdi said, "they should know there's going to be a reaction."
As the clashes erupted, Iraq's Kurdish president personally appealed to Sadr to intervene. Sadr called his forces back by the next morning and asked the ministers and parliament members to resume their duties. For his part, Hakim denounced the attack on the office in Najaf and, in a rare acknowledgment, praised Sadr's restraint.
But virtually no one in Najaf or elsewhere thought the fight was over.
"We stand against them," said Murtadha Hajjaj, the Sadr representative in Basra. "Their ideas are Iran first, then Iraq."
