Iraqi leader asks for Arab support during crackdown

Militia leaders warn of violent reaction to clashes

Schoolboys headed for cover as smoke billowed from a roadside bomb explosion near a US convoy yesterday in the central part of Basra, Iraq. A Humvee was set ablaze and casualties were reported, the US military said, but no further details were given. (ESSAM AL-SUDANI/AFP/Getty Images)

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister appealed yesterday for support from his Arab neighbors, urging them to open embassies and forgive Iraqi debts as his government tries to crack down on Shi'ite militias in a crucial power struggle.

But the government plea came as militia leaders warned more violence could await.

Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of the biggest militia, said they could widen the battles with the government - even asking supporters for blood donations to aid fighters injured during weeks of urban clashes.

With tension rising, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flew to Kuwait for a meeting today of Iraq's neighbors to discuss ways they can help Iraq's Shi'ite-led government as it confronts both Shi'ite militias and Sunni extremists including Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Maliki said he will be looking for tangible support, including relief from Iraq's $67 billion foreign debt - most of it owed to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.

"There are countries that support the political process and are opening embassies here. We need the others to open embassies here, too," Maliki told reporters.

In a separate development yesterday, a defense lawyer for the cousin of Saddam Hussein known as "Chemical Ali" said his client has been hospitalized after a hunger strike to protest his treatment during a legal fight that has delayed his death sentence for months.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, who got his nickname for ordering chemical weapons attacks on ethnic Kurds in the 1980s, and codefendant Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Ghafour were admitted to a US medical facility Sunday after they passed out, the lawyer said. The US military confirmed Majid was hospitalized and said he was in stable condition.

Maliki's direct appeal to Arab nations highlights the regional dilemma posed by Iraq.

Sunni Arabs have a strong stake in keeping Iraq - which is majority Shi'ite - firmly in the Arab orbit as a buffer against expanding influence by Iran, the largest Shi'ite nation. But Arab neighbors are still leery of Maliki's government and the deep Iranian ties of its main backers.

Maliki is hoping that the ongoing crackdown against Shi'ite militants will allay fears of Iranian leanings and a bias against his own Sunni population - which long held a privileged position under Saddam Hussein.

But he also pointed the finger at nations he said were supporting extremist groups and "inciting strife through the media" - an apparent reference to Arab satellite TV stations based in the Gulf, which the leadership here considers hostile to the government.

"I am bewildered by the position of these nations," Maliki added, without specifically naming a country. "Do they want to support Iraq? Iraq has emerged from a crisis and needs to be supported."

US officials have accused Iran - which will attend the Kuwait conference - of supporting Shi'ite extremists in Iraq, an allegation the Iranians deny.

The United States, too, has pressed Arab governments to respond to security improvements and political advances in Iraq with financial and political support. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who visited Baghdad on Sunday, is scheduled to be at the Kuwait meeting to lend support to Iraq.

At a meeting of Persian Gulf states in Bahrain yesterday, Rice pressed Arab nations for financial and political support of Iraq. She said Baghdad's neighbors had taken a good step forward by pledging to do more to include the country in regional affairs.

The Maliki government has demanded that Sadr disband the Mahdi Army or the Sadrists will not be allowed to run in provincial elections this fall.

In Najaf, a top Sadrist spokesman, Salah al-Obeidi, warned yesterday that open warfare was a strong possibility if the government did not ease pressure on the militia.

Obeidi said government officials and Shi'ite intermediaries had offered no serious proposals for ending the confrontation and "we are ready for all possibilities."

Last weekend, Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, threatened in an Internet statement to declare full-scale war on the US-backed government if attacks on his followers continue.

No major fighting was reported in Sadr City yesterday.

In Basra, a roadside bomb exploded near a US convoy in the central part of the city, setting a Humvee ablaze and causing casualties, the US military said. No further details were released.

Two American soldiers were killed and two others were wounded in an insurgent bombing in Salahuddin Province, which also claimed the lives of two anti- Qaeda fighters and a civilian interpreter.

In Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad, a teenage girl detonated an explosive vest at the headquarters of group of US-allied Sunni fighters, killing three people and wounding three others.