BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki distanced himself on Wednesday from a U.S.-announced "timeline" to end sectarian violence and criticized a raid on a Shi'ite militia stronghold aimed at a death squad leader.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, speaks to the media at a press conference Wednesday Oct. 25, 2006 in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. U.S. and Iraqi forces on Wednesday raided Sadr City, the stronghold of the Shiite militia led by radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki disavowed the operation, saying he had not been consulted and insisting 'that it will not be repeated.' The defiant al-Maliki also slammed the top U.S. military and diplomatic representatives in Iraq for their Tuesday news conference, at which they said Iraq needed to set a timetable to curb violence ravaging the country. (AP Photo/Wathiq Khuzaie, Pool)
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Maliki, himself a Shi'ite Muslim, spoke a day after the top U.S. civilian and military officials in Iraq said his government had agreed to a series of steps to end the bloodshed over the next year that would allow U.S. troops to start going home.
"The Americans have the right to review their policies but we do not believe in a timetable and no one will impose one on us," Maliki told a news conference in remarks that seemed aimed at dispelling any perception he is a pawn of the White House.
He also contradicted a U.S. military statement which said Wednesday's Iraqi-U.S. ground and air assault on the crowded Sadr City slum district of Baghdad, in which four people were killed, had been authorized by his government.
"We will be seeking an explanation from the multinational forces to avoid a repetition of what happened without our cooperation in advance," Maliki said.
President Bush was due to hold his own news conference on Iraq on Wednesday (1430 GMT) amid mounting public disaffection with policy there that opinion polls say could cost his Republicans control of Congress in elections on November 7.
Tuesday's briefing by Bush's ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and his military commander General George Casey also sought to allay American public fears over lack of progress in Iraq, where 90 U.S. soldiers have been killed so far in October, already the deadliest month for a year.
Khalilzad said Maliki and other Iraqi leaders had agreed to a series of political and security steps or "benchmarks" and he expected "significant progress" over the next 12 months, a timeframe he called realistic.
U.S. officials have pointedly avoided using the term "deadline" and have not said what Washington would do if the benchmarks are not met.
Maliki too insisted he was not working to any deadlines, though he did repeat that he would deal with sectarian militias responsible for much of the bloodletting in the country.
"The state is the only one that has the right to carry weapons ... We will deal with anyone outside the law," he said.
"Everyone now realizes that the existence of armed groups and militias harms the stability and unity of the state."
SLUM RAID RAISES ANGER
The differences over Wednesday's raid on Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army militia of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, illustrated the conflicting political pressures on Maliki and his American allies.
Sadr is a powerful force behind Maliki, who has struggled to balance the competing demands of the Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds in his unity coalition since taking office six months ago.
The U.S. military said Iraqi special forces backed by U.S. air strikes conducted the raid "to capture a top illegal armed group commander directing widespread death squad activity".
It was not clear whether the commander had been captured or killed in the assault, which the Interior Ministry said had left four dead and wounded 20. Residents said the dead included two Mehdi Army militiamen.
Maliki said there was a "lack of coordination" in the assault and denied that it marked the start of a crackdown.
A leader of the Mehdi Army in Sadr City, who would not be identified by name, said the militia had "checked with the government" whether it had approved the raid.
"They said the Americans did not cooperate with them on the attack. This means as usual that the Americans have no respect for any authority when they want to do something," he said.
"It seems they want to lure the Mehdi Army into a confrontation."
With sectarian and militia violence escalating, raising fears of all-out civil war, senior U.S. officials have privately expressed impatience with Maliki's ability to deliver.
Khalilzad singled out the Mehdi Army on Tuesday as needing to be "brought under control" but when U.S. forces arrested a senior Sadr aide last week, they released him the following day on Maliki's request.
Much of the anger in Sadr City over Wednesday's raid was directed at the prime minister.
"Where is Maliki? Where is his freedom?," said one man lying on a stretcher in the hospital. Another man in the hospital shouted: "All this is because of Maliki."
Thousands of men chanting "No to America" choked the streets in a mourning cortege that accompanied four vehicles bearing the coffins of the dead to burial in the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, south of the capital.
Diplomats in the fortified Green Zone, which houses government offices, embassies and U.S. military facilities, said they had been ordered to take protective measures after a number of mortar bombs fell in the sprawling compound.
Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Alastair Macdonald, Claudia Parsons and Ibon Villelabeitia
© Copyright 2006 Reuters Ltd
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