Top Iraqi Ayatollah Urges Action to Rein In Militias

BAGHDAD, April 27 -- Iraq's most revered Shiite Muslim cleric urged Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki in a meeting Thursday to deal quickly with sectarian militias blamed for widespread killings, and to ensure that Iraqi police and soldiers remain loyal to the country and not to political factions.

Wading into what has emerged as the first major issue facing Maliki, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani said it had "become necessary to have weapons only in the hands of government forces," according to a statement released by his office.

The government must also "rebuild these forces on sound, patriotic bases so that their allegiance shall be to the homeland alone, not to any other political or other groups," Sistani told Maliki, who was chosen by a coalition of Shiite religious parties. The two men met Thursday in the southern city of Najaf, home to Iraq's Shiite clerical leaders.

Shiite militias such as the Mahdi Army, led by the firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and the Badr Organization, which is tied to Iraq's largest political party, dominate many Iraqi police and army units and have been accused by Sunni Arab leaders and U.S. officials of operating death squads.

Maliki also met on Thursday with Sadr, who gave a noncommittal answer when asked at a news conference afterward about plans to disband militias.

"In fact, all the factions which are inside or outside the government converge in the interest and service of the Iraqi people," said Sadr, whose Mahdi Army clashed with U.S. forces in 2004 and has been the target of a recent series of raids in Baghdad and southern Iraq.

Also on Thursday, a roadside bomb attack against an Italian army convoy in Nasiriyah, about 200 miles south of Baghdad, killed three Italian soldiers and one from Romania, Italian officials announced. Romano Prodi, who will head Italy's next government, said the killings would not expedite a planned withdrawal of the more than 2,500 Italian troops in Iraq.

"We won't fly away. Of course we shall work in Iraq for peace in order to help reconstruction," he said at a news conference in Rome, according to the Associated Press, which reported that 27 Italian soldiers have died in Iraq, including 19 in the bombing of a barracks in 2003.

Two insurgent groups asserted responsibility for the attacks in Internet postings -- the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Imam Hussein Brigades. Neither claim could be immediately verified.

Maliki and U.S. officials in Baghdad have said one of the new government's top priorities should be dealing with the armed groups -- perhaps by incorporating their members into the security forces on an individual basis -- though no detailed plan has been announced.

Asked Thursday who would be named to head the country's security ministries, which U.S. officials have said should be put beyond the control of politicians with ties to militias, Maliki said the posts "would be given to independent members, but it's not definite yet."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who visited Iraq this week along with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said the establishment of a new Iraqi government after months of haggling over the prime minister's post would pave the way for enacting policies to stem militia violence.

Sadr called the visit by the American cabinet secretaries "a flagrant interference in Iraqi affairs."

Shiite militias now rival Iraq's Sunni Arab-led insurgency as the country's top security threat, U.S. officials say. But a military spokesman in Baghdad said Thursday that the solutions to the two threats would be different.

"The only way we can deal with Zarqawi or al-Qaeda is to kill or capture them," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said. "We believe there are other ways to solve the militia problem. . . . The solution to the militia problem is, indeed, a political solution."

Elsewhere in Iraq on Thursday, police in and around Baqubah, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, repelled attacks on several police stations and road checkpoints, killing 19 insurgents and capturing 25 others, according to Maj. Gen. Ghassan Abbas Bawi, police commander in Diyala province.

At least 10 police officers were also killed in the clashes, which sparked a series of evening raids by security forces in the southern part of the city, which has been hit by a large number of attacks in recent weeks. Police also announced a province-wide curfew Friday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sarhan reported from Najaf. Correspondent Nelson Hernandez and special correspondent Hassan Shammari in Baqubah contributed to this report.