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US military seeks alsadr talks { June 1 2007 }

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   http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/201524.html

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/201524.html

Military seeks al-Sadr talks, U.S. general says
By Leila Fadel - McClatchy Baghdad Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, June 1, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. military is seeking talks with Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr directly and through the government of Iraq, according to a top American general.

An al-Sadr aide confirmed that U.S. officials had approached the anti-American cleric's supporters but said that al-Sadr would never begin a dialogue with what his backers describe as "occupation forces."

"He has a grass-roots movement that he's always going to have; we have to recognize that," Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking American commander in Iraq, told McClatchy Newspapers in an interview this week. "We're trying to talk to him. We want to talk to him."

In a video conference from Baghdad on Thursday, Odierno said the United States was reaching out to Sunni Muslims as well as Shiite armed factions such as al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

"We are talking about cease-fires, and maybe signing some things that say they won't conduct operations against the government of Iraq or against coalition forces," he said Thursday.

At the same time, however, U.S. and British forces have stepped up operations against the Mahdi Army in the sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City in Baghdad and the southern port city of Basra.

Odierno said he wasn't sure whether al-Sadr's resurfacing in the Shiite holy city of Kufa last week was a good or bad thing for American forces in Iraq. While the cleric was away, his organization became more fractionalized, and part of the reason for his return, Odierno said, was "the consolidation of his powers." This could mean cleaning up rogue elements of the Mahdi Army, he said.

"I'm mixed; I'm not sure yet," Odierno said about the effect of al-Sadr's return on security. "I'll take a wait-and-see attitude."

Al-Sadr, who was widely rumored to be hiding in neighboring Iran for months, appeared at Friday prayers in Kufa last week spouting anti-American rhetoric and calling on his followers to work with Sunnis against a U.S. "occupation." Al-Sadr largely inherited his constituency from the millions of impoverished Shiites in Iraq who are loyal to his father, the popular Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, whom Saddam Hussein's regime assassinated.

While Muqtada al-Sadr's religious standing is shaky, his family name draws deep loyalty. Shiites credit his militia with protecting them from Sunni insurgents who target Shiite neighborhoods. But the Mahdi Army also is blamed for kidnapping and killing Sunni men.

If the Iranian-backed al-Sadr, who has cast himself as a national resistance figure, began talking with the United States, he'd risk losing support in the Iraqi street.

He called for a demonstration in Najaf in April against the American presence in Iraq, and legislators from his movement are circulating a bill in parliament to set a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal.




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