Iraq Shi'ite militias clash with police again

Suwayra (Iraq), Oct 21: Gunmen loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr clashed with police near Baghdad today, one day after hundreds of Sadr's militiamen attacked police stations and battled Iraqi forces in a town further south.

The violence in the oil-rich Shi'ite heartland is testing the ability of Iraq's Shi'ite-led government to rein in militias and other armed groups accused of fomenting violence that has pushed Iraq close to civil war.

The escalation in Shi'ite infighting threatens to further deteriorate the security situation in Iraq, where Shi'ites and Sunnis are engaged in a vicious sectarian conflict and insurgents are battling both Iraqi government and U S troops.

It also comes amid a rising U S death toll in Iraq and as the United States gears up for mid-term elections in which voter discontent over the White House's handling of the war has emerged as a top issue.

U S President George W Bush has called in his top military advisors for a meeting today to discuss Iraq. There is a growing demand from Republicans and Democrats alike for a change in strategy ranging from more U S troops to dialogue with Syria and Iran to a withdrawal of American forces from the country.

U S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice downplayed the significance today's meeting, saying Bush did not plan a major review of its strategy.

''Given the problems of violence in Iraq and the fact that the violence is not coming down to the degree that people would have hoped, there will be a lot of discussion about how we address that,'' she told reporters travelling with her to Moscow.

But a member of Bush's Republican Party, Sen. Olympia Snowe, told The Washington Post: ''I don't think there's any question about that, that there will be a change'' in the U S strategy in Iraq after the November 7 elections.

Militias Attack Police Station

Police Lieutenant Ali Naamah said the violence erupted in Suwayra after some 150 Mehdi Army militiamen armed with AK-47 assault rifles attacked a police station in the Tigris town 45 km (30 miles) south of Baghdad. He said eight gunmen died and two civilians were wounded.

A spokesman for Sadr's office in Suwayra said the attack on the police station was a response to an earlier raid by U S military forces, backed by helicopters, on a Sadr office. Hamid al-Zargani said the U S raid killed six people.

Zargani said Mehdi Army fighters withdrew from positions after receiving a message from Sadr calling for calm. The U S military said it had no reports of helicopter attacks there.

The fighting came a day after fierce battles between Mehdi Army militias and police in the southern city of Amara, which killed at least 25 people in two days.

National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waeli today met tribal leaders in Amara in efforts to ease the tension, which he said was fuelled by tribal divisions.

Under mounting U S pressure, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has pledged to disband militias including the Mehdi Army.

But Maliki, a Shi'ite, is politically dependent on parties with ties to the militias. Sadr has a large block in parliament which provides critical support to Maliki's coalition and moving against him could weaken Maliki's five-month-old government.

Peaceful compared to western and central Iraq where a Sunni Arab insurgency is raging, the growing and bitter power struggle among rival Shi'ite groups is raising questions about whether U S troops will be able to turn over security to Iraqi forces.

At the heart of the infighting among the once-oppressed but now politically empowered Shi'ite majority are Sadr and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the largest party in the ruling Shi'ite alliance led by the powerful Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.

In a sign of mounting government concern over Sadr's militias, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani travelled to the holy city of Najaf today to meet the cleric.

National Security Minister Shirwan al-Waeli was in Amara today meeting tribal leaders to restore a tenuous calm.

Reuters