Friday, January 18, 2008

NAJAf, Iraq: Radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr put the United States and the Iraqi government on notice Friday that he may not extend a six-month cease-fire by his militia.

The cease-fire by the Mahdi Army militia, due to expire next month, has been cited by U.S. commanders in Iraq as a major contributor to the nationwide reduction of violence over the past six months. U.S. and Iraqi forces, however, have stepped up their hunt for the militiamen in recent months, arguing they were members of rogue cells closely linked to Iran.

"The rationale for the decision to extend the freeze of the Mahdi Army is beginning to wear thin," Salah al-Obeidi, al al-Sadr spokesman, said in a statement issued in the holy city of Najaf south of Baghdad.

"This is because the government is supporting some criminal gangs operating inside security agencies and which refuse to abide by the law," said al-Obeidi. He did not elaborate, but he was alluding to Shiites from rival groups that have infiltrated security forces.

Al-Obeidi said senior security officials remained in their jobs despite arrest warrants issued against them for human rights abuses. "This will force us to reconsider the decision to extend the cease-fire despite repeated public statements in the past that we will."

"This statement should be taken as a warning to the Iraqi government to pay heed ... if it wants to bolster stability," said the statement.

The Mahdi Army, whose main stronghold is in Baghdad, has along with Sunni militants been blamed for the sectarian violence that followed the bombing in February 2006 of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad.