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Al-Sadr's Bloc Will Not Compete In Vote

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Los Angeles Times

Published: June 16, 2008

Updated: 06/16/2008 12:22 am

BAGHDAD - Members of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's political bloc Sunday announced the group would not compete as a party in coming local elections but would endorse candidates.

The decision is part of a strategic change by the militant cleric as the Shiite-led government gave Shiite militiamen in an al-Sadr stronghold four days to surrender heavy weapons or face arrest.

The new strategy includes a decision announced Friday by al-Sadr to set up an elite wing within his Mahdi Army to fight the Americans, enabling him to reassert control over his 60,000-strong militia that the United States says has fallen under Iranian influence.

The decision also appeared aimed at allowing the Sadrists to play a role in the election despite a government threat to bar the bloc from fielding candidates if it did not first dissolve its militia.

Al-Sadr's followers hope to use this fall's provincial council balloting to loosen the grip on power their Shiite rivals have enjoyed since the January 2005 elections.

Sadrists have charged that a spring military campaign in Basra, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of the Dawa party, was an effort to damage their movement's ability to compete successfully in the fall vote.

The elections - expected to begin in October - will choose governing councils in Iraq's 18 provinces and are seen as a key step in repairing the country's sectarian rifts.

ALSO IN IRAQ

•In a weekend blitz, U.S. and Iraqi troops seized one "huge" and three smaller weapons and munitions caches in Baghdad. The cache described as huge by Lt. Col. Steve Stover of the Multi-National Division/Baghdad and the 4th Infantry Division, contained 90 Soviet-made rockets, several mortars made in Iran, mines, TNT and numerous other explosives.

•A cousin and top deputy of Saddam Hussein on Sunday denied opening fire on Iraqi civilians during a Shiite uprising in 1991 but acknowledged executing an Iranian national accused of sabotage. Ali Hassan al-Majid, known by the nickname of "Chemical Ali" for ordering poison gas attacks on the Kurds, disputed witness accounts of the attack.

Sources: McClatchy-Tribune, The Associated Press

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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