The Iraqi government has called on armed groups to follow the lead of the biggest Shi’ite militia and freeze their operations, even as the United States military on Friday reported the deaths of two more American service members in fighting against Sunni insurgents.
A statement by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office welcomed Wednesday’s decision by anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to freeze attacks by his Mehdi Army for up to six months as a step toward ”affirming security and stability”.
The statement, issued late on Thursday, said al-Sadr’s move offered ”a good chance” to ”suspend the work of other militias” to restore ”the integrity and sovereignty of Iraq”.
Al-Sadr issued the order after his fighters were suspected of a role in this week’s gunfights during a religious festival in Karbala that killed up to 51 people.
A shadowy faction of the Mehdi Army — the Free Men’s Brigade — rejected al-Sadr’s order, noting that the young cleric had said in the past that only the country’s Shi’ite religious leadership could halt the militia’s operations.
Little is known of the faction, which emerged this month in southern Iraq. Al-Sadr loyalists in Baghdad suspect its ranks include mostly Shi’ites who were Saddam Hussein supporters.
Calming effects
Al-Sadr’s order appeared to have had a calming effect in Baghdad, where police on Thursday found only five bodies of bullet-riddled victims of sectarian death squads.
In Sadr City, the Shi’ite slum in north-east Baghdad, residents said there was no sign of Mehdi militiamen, who normally cruise the streets in cars and converge on al-Sadr’s office in the evening.
The Mehdi Army has been accused by Sunni Arab politicians of massacring thousands of Sunni Arabs. The US military believes Iranian-backed splinter groups from the organisation have been responsible for most of the recent attacks in the Baghdad area that have caused American casualties.
Mehdi militiamen have been locked in a bitter struggle with other armed Shi’ite groups for supremacy in the Shi’ite southern heartland of southern Iraq, which includes major religious shrines and the bulk of the country’s vast oil wealth.
The two US service members — a marine and an army soldier — were killed on Wednesday in fighting in Anbar province, the Sunni Arab stronghold west of Baghdad, the military said.
That brings the total US troop deaths in Iraq to at least 79 this month, one more than the July total, which was the lowest monthly figure this year.
The US statement gave no further details.
However, the military said marines from the 5th Regimental Combat Team killed 12 suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq fighters and destroyed two vehicles in fighting on Wednesday near the Anbar city of Fallujah.
Marine AV-8B Harrier jets dropped two precision-guided bombs, and marines also called in artillery strikes against the insurgents during the battle, the military said.
”Numerous weapons and roadside bomb making materials were also found,” the US statement said.
Raid
Elsewhere in Anbar, US and Iraqi forces raided houses in the Euphrates River town of Haqlaniyah, 220km north-west of Baghdad, and closed bridges linking the town with Haditha.
Alhurra television reported that four al-Qaeda fighters and two Sunni tribesmen opposed to the terror movement were killed in gun fights on Friday in Haqlaniyah.
US officials have reported a dramatic drop in violence in Anbar after numerous Sunni Arab community leaders broke with al-Qaeda in Iraq last year. Some members of other insurgent groups have joined forces with the US to hunt down al-Qaeda members.
The apparent turnaround in Anbar is expected to figure prominently in September reports to the US Congress, where prominent Democrats and Republicans have called for a drawdown in US forces here.
The reports, including one by the top US commander General David Petraeus, are expected to point to some limited success in curbing violence but little progress toward political power-sharing agreements among Shi’ites, Sunnis and Kurds.
On Friday, al-Maliki said political leaders were close to finalising a draft law providing for provincial elections, one of the 18 benchmarks set down by the US Congress.
At a news conference on Thursday, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari insisted that Iraq has been making some headway in resolving political differences, despite defections by the main Sunni Arab bloc and a hard-line Shi’ite faction.
”The whole world is waiting anxiously to see what this report will indicate,” Zebari said. ”I personally believe that this report would not provide any magical solutions or provide any instant answers to the difficulties and challenges we are going through.” — Sapa-AP