Al-Sadr inspires opposing rallies
Five Iraqi police officers taken hostage in separate incidents
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thousands of demonstrators supporting -- and hundreds opposing -- Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took to the streets in Iraq on Friday as U.S. soldiers fought insurgents in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood and near Falluja.
In the Falluja area, U.S. forces hammered insurgent targets with airstrikes for the fourth day in a row.
Five kidnappings were reported Friday. In Najaf, four police officers were taken hostage, and in Baghdad, a police officer was abducted.
Police think the Baghdad kidnapping and the recent abduction of two female Italian aid workers might have been conducted by the same people. The kidnappers in both incidents wore Iraqi national guard uniforms and used similar vehicles, they said.
The march against al-Sadr happened in Najaf. The secretary to Gov. Adnan al-Zurufi said about 500 protesters attempted to storm the radical cleric's office but were stopped and dispersed by Iraqi forces.
The number of al-Sadr supporters at a demonstration in Baghdad, however, was much higher. About 3,000 to 4,000 marched in the northern neighborhood of Khadmiye against what they called acts of aggression by occupation forces in Sadr City.
The rally for al-Sadr called on the interim government and the Marjiya, the Shiite religious authority, to support the peace agreement between al-Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani that halted three weeks of fighting in Najaf last month.
People chanted "Long live Sadr. Allawi and Yawar are infidels," referring to interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and interim President Ghazi al-Yawar.
They also chanted, "Oh Allawi, you coward. You are a spy of the Americans." Men and women beat their chests.
Children danced and chanted "America is scared of this," with their fingers up to their faces, mimicking the pose al-Sadr takes in one of his posters.
Sheikh Ra'id al-Kadhimy, an al-Sadr spokesman, said, "We say this to the occupation forces: We are good-willed. You must cease firing. Do not force us once again to open the vials of blood. This time it will not be mere vials. It will be rivers of blood."
Police officers taken hostage
The Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera reported the four police officers' kidnappings in Najaf.
The hostage-takers -- a previously unknown group calling itself the Contributing Forces for the Annihilation of Agents and Spies -- claimed the officers were chasing the "mujahedeen and harassing Muqtada al-Sadr."
Video showed the four men surrounded by armed, masked men. One of them was held by the hair, forcefully raising his head.
Al-Jazeera reported that a man read a statement giving a deadline of 72 hours for authorities to admit to those acts and promise that they will cease at once.
If such acts continue, the hostages will be killed, the network reported.
The Baghdad kidnapping was reported Friday, when an Iraqi police officer was seized by four people in guard dress who attacked a police station.
Battles with militia
Fighting flared in the vast Shiite slum of Sadr City, where battles have been ever-present in recent days.
CNN correspondent Diane Muriel, reporting from a 1st Cavalry forward operating base, heard mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.
U.S. forces have been involved in rebuilding projects in Sadr City, trying to shore up the sewage and water-treatment systems in a region where cesspools and rubbish are prevalent.
"While we were there, one of these sewage treatment plants came under attack from assault rifles -- two vehicles coming into the area about two blocks away from where we were, firing on the Humvees that we were based in, firing on the buildings that we were based in.
"We had to run for it into the vehicles and leave the area as quickly as we could," Muriel said, reporting that groups of fighters are roving around the densely populated neighbored attacking U.S. forces.
In Falluja, U.S. Marines reported destroying a rocket launcher on the outskirts of the city as well as earth-moving equipment used by insurgents. No one was killed or injured, the Marines said.
Al-Yawar in Europe
Meanwhile, al-Yawar is visiting Italy, the latest stop in his European trip, to meet with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and other Italian officials.
The abduction of the two Italian aid workers was expected to be on the agenda.
Security, economic and reconstruction issues are among the topics al-Yawar planned to discuss with European officials.
The Italian government provides one of the larger contingents in the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq: about 2,700 troops.
Other developments:
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Iraqi government is determined to hold elections for a transitional national assembly in January, as scheduled, but there's "no question" that terrorists will try to thwart the balloting. "They're going to be looking for weak spots. They're going to be going after people who are running for office -- Iraqi people who are engaged in that process," he said. "Do I think [the voting] will go forward? Yes I do." 
