[R-G] IRAQ: Sadr "Will Maintain Elite Fighting Units to Resist the Americans if a Timetable for the Withdrawal of U.S. Troops Is Not Established"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gkx-3oYeFwuWKCusr2jrojs98w8wD92E9JAG0>
Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr reorganizes militia

By BUSHRA JUHI – 3 hours ago

BAGHDAD (AP) — Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered most of his
militiamen to disarm but said Friday he will maintain elite fighting
units to resist the Americans if a timetable for the withdrawal of
U.S. troops is not established.

Fighters in the Sunni-led insurgency, meanwhile, set off a car bomb at
a market in the northern city of Tal Afar, killing 21 people and
wounding dozens, Iraqi police said. It was the latest in a series of
deadly attacks seeking to chip away at recent security gains.

Al-Sadr's statement — read to worshippers during Friday prayers in
Baghdad's former militia stronghold of Sadr City — was in line with
details revealed earlier this week and appeared to be an extension of
plans he announced in June aimed at asserting more control over the
militia.

"Weapons are to be exclusively in the hands of one group, the
resistance group," while another group called Momahidoun is to focus
on social, religious and community work, Sadrist cleric Mudhafar
al-Moussawi said.

He said the announcement was particularly aimed at members of
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which has been blamed for some of the
worst violence against American troops and rival Sunni Arabs.

Thousands of worshippers streamed out into the streets after the
Islamic service, burning an American flag and shouting: "No, no to
America. No, no to occupation."

The cleric has linked the reorganization of the Mahdi Army to
U.S.-Iraqi negotiations over a long-term agreement that would extend
the American presence in Iraq after a U.N. mandate expires at the end
of the year. Al-Sadr and his followers want the deal to include a
timeframe for an American withdrawal and have warned they may not
suspend operations without such a clause.

Several cease-fires by al-Sadr have been key to a sharp decline in
violence over the past year, along with a Sunni revolt against
al-Qaida in Iraq and a U.S. troop buildup. But American officials
still consider his militiamen a threat and have backed the Iraqi
military in operations to try to oust them from their power bases in
Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.

The fighting cells will be "small and limited" and will only launch
attacks under direct orders from al-Sadr in case of "dire necessity,"
the cleric's spokesman, Sheik Salah al-Obeidi, told The Associated
Press in the holy city of Najaf.

He also ruled out attacks on Iraqis.

"Now our stance is to watch the political developments and the
security agreement. We will see if there will be a withdrawal
timetable or not. We will wait for the results. These cells have not
yet conducted any operations," he added.

Two Iraqi officials close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have said
government and U.S. negotiators are near an agreement on all American
combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out
three years after that. The officials all spoke on condition of
anonymity because the talks were still under way.

U.S. officials, however, insisted no dates had been agreed.

"It's premature to say what the aspiration goals and time horizons are
going to be," and a date for troop withdrawals will not be "plucked
out of thin air," White House press secretary Dana Perino said,
speaking to reporters in Beijing on Friday where President Bush is
attending the Olympics.

Throughout the conflict, Bush steadfastly refused to accept any
timetable for bringing U.S. troops home. Last month, however, Bush and
al-Maliki agreed to set a "general time horizon" for ending the U.S.
mission.

The car bomb in Tal Afar exploded by a food market about 6:30 p.m.,
when the area was crowded with shoppers, police said. One official
said Iraqi soldiers had searched the car at a checkpoint leading to
the market but failed to notice the explosives.

Two local officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they
weren't authorized to release the information, gave the casualty toll
as 21 dead and 72 wounded. The U.S. military confirmed the attack but
said initial reports indicated 15 people were killed and 50 wounded.

"I was standing near my cart when I heard a big explosion and I felt
as if hell was in front of me," said Hussein Ali, a 15-year-old food
vendor wounded in the head and legs. "The next thing I knew I was in
the hospital receiving treatment," he said from his bed.

Tal Afar, a predominantly Shiite Turkomen city 260 miles northwest of
Baghdad, also was hit by a car bombing July 16 that killed at least 18
people, including seven children.

U.S.-Iraqi military operations are currently under way pursuing
al-Qaida in Iraq fighters and other insurgents in Mosul and elsewhere
in the north.

Ethnic tensions also have been rising between Turkomen, Arabs and
Kurds in that region over the status of the oil city of Kirkuk.

Kurdish leader Massoud al-Barzani visited Kirkuk on Friday and called
for the rival factions "to have an open dialogue" to resolve their
disagreement over sharing control of the city.

His appeal came two days after the dispute blocked passage of a
provincial elections law, casting doubt on whether U.S.-backed
balloting can be held this year in Iraq's 18 provinces. The bill
failed because the sides were unable to come to agree on a
power-sharing deal for the region around Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's
northern oil fields.

Kurds consider Kirkuk their ancestral capital and want to incorporate
it into their self-ruled region in the north. Most Arabs and Turkomen
want Kirkuk to remain under central government control.

In Washington, the State Department expressed irritation that the
parliament had gone into summer recess without having reached a
compromise on the matter.

"The status of Kirkuk is indeed a sensitive issue that needs to be
addressed in a serious fashion, but it is an issue that cannot be
solved through the legislative mechanism of the election law,"
spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said. "The election law should not be held
hostage to that problem."

Associated Press writer Saad Abdul-Kadir contributed to this report.