AL-SADR MILITIA PUMPING UP WITH DRUGS

Militiamen fighting under the banner of radical Muslim cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr are pumping themselves up with drugs before confronting coalition
forces, according to U.S. military reports and State Department and Iraqi
sources.

Although quelled in Najaf in August, the Mahdi's Army militia is still
active around southern Iraq and continues to largely control the Baghdad
slum known as Sadr City -- the target of repeated U.S. military air raids
and tank patrols.

"They give their suicide bombers barbiturates, and the amphetamines are for
street fighters who are facing off with the U.S.," a State Department
analyst said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Amphetamines are addictive stimulants that induce feelings of power, but in
the long run can result in violent and aggressive behavior. Barbiturates,
also addictive, are used to reduce anxiety, but can cause more anxiety and
hallucinations once someone is dependent on them.

Most schools of Islam believe that the prohibition of alcohol in the Koran
is applicable to other mind-altering substances, including narcotics.

An Iraqi engineer, incredulous at reports of drugs being bought and sold by
the militia inside Sadr City mosques, sent a member of his staff to
purchase a sample.

"She brought me capsules filled with powder -- heroin -- that they are
selling everywhere in Baghdad and financing their fight from this trade,"
said the engineer, who asked that his name not be used.

He said the heroin was entering the capital through the southern Iraqi
cities of Amara and Basra -- both Mahdi militia strongholds -- from Iran.

U.S. military reports also have said that members of Sheik al-Sadr's
Mahdi's Army are using a local drug similar to the mildly euphoric
stimulant known as khat, which is widely used across the Arabian Peninsula.

"Reports are that a large percentage, maybe as high as 85 percent of
[Mahdi's Army] fighters are using a hallucinogenic drug, Arteen, to provide
courage during their attacks," according to one document focusing on the
security situation in southern Iraq.

The document said the drug made the typically black-clad fighters feel
bolder and less fearful. It also "makes them less predictable and looking
for fights," it warned.

According to the State Department analyst, gunfights have broken out
between members of the Mahdi's Army fighting over their share of the drugs.

"There was a firefight in a mosque where two factions of Sadr guys shot
each other to pieces over amphetamines," the analyst said, citing
eyewitness reports.

"It's big-time stuff," said the analyst, who added that the drug usage
appeared limited to Iraqis -- "regular guys on the street" -- who had
joined the cleric's militia, and were not being used by "foreign fighters"
bent on destroying U.S. efforts in Iraq.

The Mahdi's Army is spread around southern Iraq, from Basra to Najaf and
Sadr City in Baghdad, but it is not clear whether it is one coherent force
or even whether Sheik al-Sadr has complete control over its members.

After the standoff with U.S. forces in Najaf in the summer, which ended
with the country's top religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini
al-Sistani, brokering a cease-fire, militia members appear to have focused
their efforts in Sadr City.

U.S. and Iraqi forces are attacked on a daily basis in the slum area by
black-masked militia members wielding small arms and rocket-propelled
grenades. Roadside bombs are common.

During the summer, Sheik al Sadr's militia targeted military and civilian
reconstruction projects throughout the south, coercing local Iraqi police
to leave them alone or even to cooperate with them.

Separate military reports stated that Mahdi's Army militiamen were roaming
through southern Iraq setting up ambushes, overrunning Iraqi police
stations and stealing weapons, vehicles and uniforms.

In one incident, a vehicle stopped on a road from Amara to Basra was found
to be carrying some 1,000 mortar rounds, several mortar tubes, 200
rocket-propelled grenades, Katusha rockets and two bags of TNT.