Agence France-Presse,
Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his dreaded Shiite militia on Wednesday to stop attacks on US-led forces as part of a six-month suspension of the militant group's activities.
The order came after fierce firefights left at least in 52 people dead in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala on Tuesday in violence witnesses said involved policemen and suspected fighters from Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
Sadr aides have denied any involvement in the fighting that sent hundreds of thousands of pilgrims fleeing from Karbala and led Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to slap an indefinite curfew on the city.
“I direct the Mahdi Army to suspend all its activities for six months until it is restructured in a way that helps honour the principles for which it is formed,” Sadr said in a statement issued by his office in the city of Najaf.
Sheikh Ahmed al-Shaibani, a Sadr aide who led a bloody rebellion against US forces in Najaf in 2004, said the suspension included a ban on any attacks on US-led forces.
“The suspension means that the Mahdi Army will stop all armed activities against the occupiers or any other groups,” he told AFP. “The aim is to reorganise the militia but not to dismantle it. It is also an effort to root out the rogue elements.”
The thousands-strong Mahdi Army has been accused in the death-squad killings of Sunni Arabs since a brutal sectarian conflict broke out in February 2006.
In December, the Pentagon identified the militia as the biggest threat to stability in the war-ravaged country, even ahead of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the local affiliate of Osama bin Laden's network.
Sadr responded by dropping out of sight and ordering his followers not to resist a joint US-Iraqi crackdown to restore stability to Baghdad, the epicentre of the communal bloodletting.
Most of his fighters are reported to have disappeared to avoid the military crackdown and taken shelter in the Shiite south of the country.
The militia has also suffered from allegations of being involved in clashes with rival Shiite militias, particularly the Badr Corps. That is the military wing linked to the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, the party led by powerful politician Abdel Aziz al-Hakim.
Some also say the cleric is battling to retain his tenuous hold on his militia leaders, many of whom the American military believes have broken away from the main group.
Hundreds of Mahdi Army fighters have been killed or captured by US forces since the nationwide security assaults were launched earlier this year.
The US military claims that most of the targeted individuals from the militia are “rogue” elements who have broken away from the main faction.
It says these militants have formed special groups that are trained by Iranian-linked groups to kill US-led troops. Tehran denies the charge.
Meanwhile, Maliki, who has come under fire from at home and abroad for failing to restore stability in Iraq, clamped a curfew on Karbala after Tuesday's bloodletting.
He also sacked Major General Saleh Khazal al-Maliki, the Iraqi commander in charge of the security for the pilgrimage.
Maliki accused members of executed dictator Saddam Hussein's regime of fomenting the violence but said security forces had now taken control of the city, still smouldering from a night of bitter fighting.
An AFP correspondent said fighting that had raged from Tuesday afternoon finally died down early Wednesday but until the curfew came into force gunmen could still be seen in the streets brandishing their weapons.
National security advisor Muwafaq al-Rubaie acknowledged shortcomings in the response of the security forces but said army reinforcements had been sent.
“The prime minister himself is supervising the operations.”
Troops sent from Baghdad and neighbouring provinces to Karbala, 110 kilometres (70 miles) south of the capital, had secured the old city, which houses shrines to two Shiite saints, Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, where much of the fighting had taken place.
The bloodshed in Karbala shook the Shiite community as it occurred during one of Shiite Islam's holiest festivals, the birthday of Imam Mohammed al-Mahdi, an eighth century imam.
While Maliki blamed Saddam loyalists, local officials said the Mahdi Army, which has estabished a stronghold in Karbala, was behind the fighting.
A security official said a senior Sadrist and member of Karbala provincial council, Hamid Gannoosh, had been arrested in Karbala on Wednesday for his alleged role in the violence.
