US and Britain 'to target Mahdi Army'

A NEW offensive against Iraq's Mahdi Army - a militia blamed for sectarian death squad killings - is to be launched by the United States and Britain, it was claimed yesterday.

US-led forces are to target the organisation, led by the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, after the Pentagon described it as the biggest threat to Iraq's security. Diplomats say Washington is impatient to confront its key figures.

Several officials in the Shiite political parties that dominate the unity government of the prime minister, Nuri al- Maliki, are also losing patience with Sadr's supporters and predict more raids like last week's joint US-Iraqi operation in which a senior Sadr aide was killed.

"There will be limited and targeted operations against members of the Mahdi Army," a senior Shiite official said. "The ground is full of surprises, but we think around this time there will be some operations. I can say no more."

British forces in the southern province of Basra have been conducting major raids against groups they describe as "rogue Mahdi Army", some entrenched in Iraqi police units.

Last week, British troops blew up the headquarters of Basra's Major Crimes Unit and said they freed tortured prisoners.

One western diplomat in Baghdad, who was neither American nor British, said: "The Americans want a war with the Mahdi Army ... and it seems they will succeed in getting one. They want to get rid of the militia."

In Washington, George Bush, the US president, will next week unveil his revised Iraq strategy, which is expected to entail new political, military and economic steps to win the war. The military effort, which has attracted the most attention and scepticism from Congress, is expected to include an increase in US forces, possibly an additional 9,000 troops deployed to Baghdad alone.

"One thing is for certain: I will want to make sure the mission is clear and specific and can be accomplished," Mr Bush said yesterday.

Jacques Chirac, the French president, said the US-led invasion of Iraq had destabilised the entire Middle East and caused terrorism to spread, adding that the problems in Iraq had justified his country's strong opposition to the war.

"As France foresaw and feared, the war in Iraq caused upheavals whose effects have not yet finished unravelling," he said yesterday in a New Year message to French ambassadors.

On the streets of Iraq, meanwhile, the violence continued. Police in Basra said a US civilian and two Iraqis had been abducted - the US Embassy said it was investigating the report.

In Baghdad, mortar rounds killed four civilians in the Shiite neighbourhood of Zaafaraniyah, while gunmen killed four soldiers at an Iraqi army checkpoint.

IRAQ'S MOST WANTED

IRAQ'S Mahdi Army - the radical Shia militia founded by the young firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr - probably has just a few thousand fighters.

But it has been branded by the Pentagon as the biggest threat to Iraq's security and has survived several onslaughts by the US military.

Sunnis blame the Mahdi Army for sectarian death squad killings, a charge Sadr denies. It has also been involved in attacks on multinational forces.

Western intelligence officials are uncertain how much control Sadr now wields over the unruly militia or how much support he receives from Iran, which is growing concerned at the chaos on its doorstep.

Founded in the summer of 2003, the militia takes its name from the Mahdi, a messianic figure in the Shia tradition.

The militia is now one of the major armed forces on the ground in Baghdad, where it controls mainly Shia areas and is involved in both community work and neighbourhood watch activities against Sunni militants.

Sadr's main stronghold is Sadr City, a teeming Shia slum in Baghdad named after his father, a revered cleric.

Two of Sadr's brothers and his father were murdered by Saddam Hussein's security services.