MADAEN, Iraq, April 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US-backed Iraqi troops were Monday, April 18, in complete control of Al-Madaen town, southeast of Baghdad, where there were no signs of hostage-taking, drawing fierce criticisms of the Iraqi authorities and charges they were playing with fire.

“The whole city is under control. We’ve secured houses where people said there were hostages. We could not find any. I don’t think we’ll find any,” Brigadier General Mohammed Sabri Latif was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

His statements came after a 1,500-strong Iraqi force backed by US troops moved into the town without resistance, finding its streets deserted, shops shuttered and most of its 7,000 residents hiding inside their homes, said an AFP correspondent embedded with the US military.

Abdel Salam Al-Kubeissi, an official with the Association of Muslim Scholars, Iraq’s highest Sunni religious authority which was involved in negotiations between local people and the government, told AFP that “as far as we know, there were no hostages”.

On Sunday, one defense ministry official said police had entered Al-Madaen, met “severe resistance” from “insurgents” – a term used by US occupation forces to refer to anti-foreign troops attackers -- but recaptured half the town and freed as many as 15 families.

This, however, was later denied by other officials, saying no hostages had been found.

The three-day standoff around Al-Madaen, fueled by rumors, suspicions and sharply conflicting reports, had threatened to spiral into a national crisis.

The military operation followed exaggerated media reports that Sunni gunmen were holding up to 80 Shiite civilians hostage and threatening to kill them unless all Shiites left the town on the Tigris river 30 kilometers (18 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr’s movement was quick to warn the Iraqi government Monday against taking “foolish action” over the reported stand-off in Al-Madaen.

“We want the area to be spared the foolish actions of some in the government,” spokesman Sheikh Abdul Hadi Al-Darraji told AFP.

He demanded clarification about the situation in the town after reports of the hostage-taking proved to be baseless.

“I have not encountered one single person that said he was detained by militants,” he added.

Darraji, like members of the parliament's dominant Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), charged that exaggerated reports of events in Al-Madaen may be the work of former regime elements operating in the interior and defense ministries to sow instability.

“It is intentional and premeditated,” he said. “Instead of discussing their internal procedures and haggling over ministerial posts, the newly elected deputies should pay attention to the plight of Iraqis.”

Even some officials suggested the situation in Al-Madaen was being exaggerated for political gain, but blamed it on “groups trying to show by a hostage crisis that the interim government was incompetent”.

“The lack of a government is making everyone try to show that they know something and that they are influential,” Sabah Kadhim, an adviser to the interior minister, told Reuters.

“Al-Madaen was just blown out of proportion. It’s a mixed community with problems that are tribal matters. But you’ve got outside forces, some of them on the political side, who were exploiting the situation,” he said.

Kidnapping has been common in towns such as Al-Madaen, which has a mixed Sunni and Shiite population but where tribal loyalties often supersede religious affiliations.

Kadhim said it was possible that some people were being held hostage in Al-Madaen -- although he said it was extremely unlikely that 150 were ever being held -- and it was probable that criminal and “insurgent” gangs operate in the area.

He stressed, however, that the bigger issue was politics.

Earlier reports had suggested there had been some tit-for-tat kidnappings between tribes in the area.

Iraqi forces, backed by some 85 US soldiers and Apache attack helicopters, continued to comb the town and surrounding areas Monday.

Hooded Iraqi commandos in four-wheel drive vehicles and green and yellow pick-up trucks flying large Iraqi flags patrolled the deserted streets.

Near a yellow brick blue-domed mosque in the center of town, some fruit and vegetable stalls lay overturned.

The confusion has underlined just how jumpy Iraq's authorities are amid a political vacuum since the January election, with no government yet formed.