Sadr bids to rein in militia as Iraq violence rages

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his Shiite militia not to take part in the wave of communal bloodletting sweeping Iraq, as dozens more Iraqis fell to sectarian death squads.

Police found the corpses of 36 murder victims on Baghdad's streets on Thursday, according to the US-led coalition, after what a military spokesman dubbed a "tremendous spike" in killings in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Iraqi police said Friday another 14 corpses had been found in a plantation north of the capital, where gunmen had rounded up workers and shot them in the head.

Most of the murders are thought to have been were carried out by the death squads that roam Iraq, killing with virtual impunity on behalf of the Sunni and Shiite factions vying for control.

According to US commanders, many of the estimated 23 militia groups in and around Baghdad are linked to or protected by Sadr's Mahdi Army, a loosely organised force of young Shiite gunmen.

But on Friday, Sadr called on those who had killed Iraqis to "repent".

"There are rumours that there are groups or persons from the Mahdi Army attacking the Iraqi people with no right to do so," Sadr said in a statement bearing his signature distributed by his office in the shrine city of Najaf.

"It is not proved so far but, if proved, I will declare their names and will renounce them with no fear or hesitation," he said.

Tens of thousands of young men have flocked to the Mahdi Army banner in the three-and-a-half years since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, giving the fiery preacher a powerful political and military voice.

In August 2004, Sadr's gunmen fought fierce battles with US forces in Najaf and in their Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City but their leader has since chosen to follow a more political route to power.

Nevertheless, in recent months black-clad fighters claiming allegiance to the Mahdi Army have again been fighting US and Iraqi forces and have been accused of supporting death squads.

US commanders now cite Shiite militias as the biggest single threat to the stability of Iraq and say they are awaiting the green light from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to launch an operation to clear Sadr City of gunmen.

"Criminals should not take righteousness as a shield," Sadr said, warning that, if they continue to fight, he will no longer seek to protect them. "I ask them to do this because I love them, not because I need them."

Read the rest at Yahoo News

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