Iraq Shi'ites reach political deal
Source: Reuters
(Updates with two U.S. Marines killed, remarks by Talabani) By Aseel Kami BAGHDAD, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The political movement of Iraqi cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr said it would end a two-month boycott of parliament on Sunday, smoothing over a rift with its Shi'ite allies in the U.S.-backed government. The political reconciliation with a group viewed with suspicion in Washington came after U.S. forces suffered their third deadliest day in Iraq since the start of war in 2003. Twenty-five U.S. soldiers were killed on Saturday in clashes with gunmen, a helicopter crash and other violence. Two U.S. Marines were killed in separate incidents on Sunday in fighting in Anbar province. The toll came three days before President George W. Bush is expected to use his State of the Union address to Congress to argue again for his plan to send thousands more troops to Iraq, despite opposition from Democrats who now control both houses of the legislature. The U.S. military said on Sunday that about 3,200 soldiers had arrived in Baghdad, the first of some 17,000 reinforcements to the city, the epicentre of sectarian violence that kills hundreds of Iraqis every week. The U.S. military blames much of the violence on the Mehdi Army militia of Sadr, whose political movement on Sunday ended the boycott of parliament, soothing a rift with its Shi'ite allies in Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government. The Sadrists announced a boycott in November to press their demand for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and to protest against a meeting between Maliki and Bush. "We are ending our boycott of the ministries and the parliament," Bahaa al-Araji, a senior member of the Sadrist group, told a news conference with the ruling Shi'ite Alliance. Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said an all-party committee would discuss calls for a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal and the renewal of the U.N. mandate for the U.S. presence in Iraq. NEW BEGINNING "This is a new beginning," he told the news conference. "We want to say to the world that an Iraqi solution for Iraqi problems is the key, and others must support these solutions." Bush announced earlier this month that he was sending about 20,000 troops to try to prevent all-out civil war between Shi'ite Muslims and the once-dominant Sunni minority. But the weekend deaths may make it harder for him to convince a sceptical public that sending more troops is the right way forward in Iraq, where more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have already died. His plans have run into resistance from opposition Democrats who now control Congress and even from within his own party. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, has accused Bush of playing politics with soldiers' lives. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in remarks aired on Sunday he will push for dialogue between the United States and Syria, which he said was helping Baghdad curb terrorism. Iraqi and U.S. officials have often accused Syria of not doing enough to stop the flow of militants crossing its Iraqi borders to fight U.S.-led troops. Damascus repeatedly said it was doing all it can to control the long desert border. "Syria wants ... stability in Iraq and is backing us in fighting terrorism. There is no justification for a stern (U.S.) stance on Syria," said Talabani. On Saturday, 12 servicemen were killed in a helicopter crash, five in a clash with gunmen in the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala and five more in separate incidents in western Anbar, heartland of the Sunni insurgency, whose deaths were announced on Sunday. One soldier was killed when a roadside bomb hit his patrol north of Baghdad and two others died elsewhere. In the Kerbala violence, gunmen attacked a building where U.S. and Iraqi officials were discussing security for Saturday's start of the 10-day rite of Ashura, a high point of the Shi'ite calendar and a previous target for Sunni militants. U.S. officials blamed the attack on militia, but the provincial governor of Kerbala province, Aqil al-Khazali, said the gunmen escaped by car on a road towards Hilla, capital of neighbouring Babil province, where Sunni Islamist militants, particularly al Qaeda, are known to have bases. (Additional reporting by Claudia Parsons, Ross Colvin, Alastair Macdonald and Mariam Karouny)
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