Pat Dollard

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A senior U.S. commander promised on Saturday that U.S. and Iraqi forces would no longer attack Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army if it stuck to a ceasefire, after militia members expressed fears it was being exploited to target them.

The Shi’ite cleric’s decision to renew his ceasefire for a further six months on Friday was hailed by the Iraqi and U.S. governments, which said it would help prevent a return to sectarian violence that pushed Iraq towards all-out civil war.

However, a number of Mehdi Army members fear the ceasefire will expose them to attacks from U.S. and Iraqi security forces, which they have accused of exploiting an initial truce called last August to arrest scores of Sadrists.

“We want to emphasize that Iraqi security forces and Coalition forces are only targeting those that commit criminal and terrorist acts,” Brigadier-General Mike Milano, deputy commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, told reporters.

“We will continue to treat those who honor the ceasefire with respect and restraint.”

Photo: Michael J. Totten

Analysts have cautioned U.S. forces not to provoke the Mehdi Army, which has tens of thousands of fighters and was once described by the Pentagon as the greatest threat to Iraq’s security. The militia staged two uprisings in 2004.

“SPECIAL GROUPS”

The U.S. military has been aggressively pursuing what it describes as “special groups”, members of Sadr’s militia who it says do not recognize the ceasefire and are trained and equipped by Iran. Tehran denies the accusations.

Milano said 31 people had been killed this week in some of the deadliest mortar and rocket strikes for months, attacks which the U.S. military usually blames on such “special groups”.

In the latest incident on Saturday, a barrage of mortar bombs or rockets hit Baghdad’s heavily protected Green Zone, home to the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government ministries, although there were no reports of casualties or damage.

U.S. commanders say Sadr’s ceasefire has been a major factor in improved security. At the height of the sectarian violence, hundreds of bodies were found dumped on Baghdad’s streets. The execution-style killings were widely blamed on the Mehdi Army.

Milano said since June last year attacks in Baghdad were down 75 percent and civilian deaths had fallen 93 percent.

But U.S. commanders still caution that al Qaeda in Iraq, which they now say is the greatest security risk, remains capable of carrying out deadly attacks.

Iraqi police said they killed nine al Qaeda militants in a gunfight on Saturday in the city of Samarra, where the bombing of a revered Shi’ite shrine two years ago triggered the wave of sectarian violence.