Key Shiites throw support behind al-Sadr

NAJAF, Iraq — One of Iraq's most influential Shiite clerics rejected a U.S.-backed proposal to isolate Shiite extremists in the national government, saying the country should govern itself with the help of anti-U.S. firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr, according to politicians who spoke with the cleric Saturday.

Shiite politicians met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in this holy Shiite city, and then said they had thrown their support behind al-Sadr, who demands a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq rather than the temporary increase under consideration in Washington.

"The Sadr movement is part of Iraqi affairs," said Haider Abadi, a leader of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party. "We won't allow others to interfere to weaken any Iraqi political movement."

Ali al-Adeeb, another member of the Dawa party, said Shiite leaders, including the prime minister, will resist U.S. efforts to sideline al-Sadr and his al-Mahdi Army militia.

"The Iraqi government decides what it thinks is necessary for the interest of the political process," he said, adding that al-Sadr's participation was essential to improve Iraq's political and security problems. Al-Sadr controls several seats in the Iraqi Cabinet and about 30 seats in parliament, but his loyalists have suspended their participation until fellow Shiite politicians join his call for an immediate U.S. withdrawal.

The expressions of support for al-Sadr are likely to complicate the Bush administration's efforts to forge a new policy on Iraq. They came as President Bush met with Secretary Condoleezza Rice and new Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who had just returned to the United States from a trip to Baghdad.

The U.S. recently labeled al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army the top terrorist threat in Iraq. It was involved in clashes with police Friday and Saturday in the southern city of Samawa in which police said five people were killed. Shiite moderates have been trying to build a new coalition with Kurds and Sunnis that would sideline al-Sadr.

Military officials say Bush's plan will likely include a "surge" of thousands of troops in addition to the 140,000 already here. Many average Iraqis grudgingly acknowledge that, while they want the Americans to leave, the U.S. troops are more honest brokers than Iraqi security forces, which they regard as corrupt, incompetent and riddled with sectarian militiamen.

But al-Sadr, whose militia has repeatedly clashed with U.S. troops, vehemently opposes their presence.

Abadi said al-Sistani maintains Iraqis know how best to govern their emerging state.