Iraq's Maliki threatens to bar Sadr from vote

The comments followed an offensive by government forces into the cleric's Baghdad stronghold, the Shi'ite slum of Sadr City, in which heavy fighting returned to the capital after a week of relative calm when Sadr called his militiamen off the streets.

 "A decision was taken ... that they no longer have a right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mehdi Army," Maliki said in an interview with CNN, according to a report posted on the U.S. television network's Web site.

Maliki's threat to drive Sadr's millions of supporters out of the political process heightens tensions in a conflict that has divided Iraq's Shi'ite majority and led to the worst fighting since extra U.S. troops arrived last year.

Sadr's followers are due this year to participate for the first time in elections for powerful provincial government posts that control the southern half of the country -- and are widely expected to oust less-popular Shi'ite parties that back Maliki. Sadr's followers said the authorities had no power to disband the Mehdi Army militia. "No one can intervene in the Mehdi Army; only those who established it and the religious leaders," the spokesman for Sadr, Salah al-Ubaidi, said.

Five U.S. soldiers were killed on Sunday in the renewed fighting, including three killed and 31 wounded in strikes with mortars bombs or rockets that crashed across Baghdad. One of those strikes killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded 17 inside the heavily fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic compound, where personnel at the world's largest U.S. embassy are now required to carry body armour and helmets.

Another strike unleashed a huge fire in the Jamila market, a vast wholesale bazaar that provides food for much of the eastern half of Baghdad.

REPORT TO CONGRESS

The violence comes just days before a progress report to Congress by the top two U.S. officials in Iraq, ambassador Ryan Crocker and military commander General David Petraeus.

Maliki launched a crackdown on Sadr's Mehdi Army late last month, triggering uprisings across southern cities and Shi'ite parts of Baghdad.

Although the government made little headway in Basra, Sadr called his militia off the streets a week ago. But U.S. and Iraqi forces have continued to surround Sadr City. Iraqi forces moved into southern parts of Sadr City on Sunday. Hospital sources said at least 25 people died and more than 90 were wounded in the fresh fighting. U.S. forces said helicopters fired at least two Hellfire missiles into the slum on Sunday, killing nine "criminals".

On Saturday, Maliki received the backing from all of Iraq's major parties apart from the Sadrists for a statement calling for all militia to disarm. That statement did not mention the Mehdi Army by name.

Sadr formed the Mehdi Army in 2003 after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The militia rose up twice against U.S. forces in 2004 but helped install Maliki in power after an election in 2005. Sadr broke with Maliki last year, partly over the government's refusal to set a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal.