U.S. tracking Iraqi cleric Sadr, sees cooperation

More By Claudia Parsons

BAGHDAD, March 14 (Reuters) - U.S. forces are keeping a close track on Moqtada al Sadr and they believe he is in Iran, a U.S. general said on Wednesday, but he declined to say whether the anti-American Shi'ite cleric was a wanted man.

Just a few months ago, Washington called Sadr's Mehdi Army militia the greatest threat to security in Iraq. The radical young cleric headed uprisings against U.S. forces twice in 2004, but his political movement is now an important party in the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

"As of 24 hours ago he (Sadr) was not here in Iraq. All indications are that he is still in Iran," said Major General William Caldwell, chief spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq.

Asked at a news conference in Baghdad why U.S. forces were tracking Sadr if they were not hunting him, Caldwell declined to say if he was a wanted man or not.

"Obviously he's a very significant part of this entire political process," Caldwell said. "We are in fact tracking his whereabouts, we do stay concerned. But ... we're very encouraged by what we're seeing on the ground right now in Sadr City."

The Mehdi Army is blamed by Sunni Arabs and Washington for operating death squads that were killing dozens of people every day in Baghdad in the year since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006.

Washington is trying to strike a delicate balance between cracking down on Mehdi Army militants responsible for sectarian killings and attacks on U.S. forces, while backing Maliki in his efforts at reconciliation and reintegrating militias, including some linked to his allies, into the political process.

Caldwell said recent U.S. and Iraqi military operations on the Mehdi Army stronghold of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad were enjoying good cooperation from the local mayor and residents, and a dozen rebuilding projects were underway as a result.

The operations in Sadr City are part of a major U.S. -backed security crackdown in Baghdad aimed at stamping out sectarian violence that threatens to become outright civil war.

Sadr City, long a no-go area for U.S. forces, was viewed as a test of the government's determination to deal as firmly with Shi'ite militias as it does with Sunni Arab insurgents, blamed for many of the car bombs in the city.

At the same news conference, U.S. Embassy Charge d'Affaires Daniel Speckhard was also reluctant to spell out Sadr's status.

Asked about U.S. State Department policy in the light of Iraqi government comments Sadr was not wanted, Speckhard said Iraqis were "in the lead" in all such political negotiations.

"In the past we've been very concerned about the Jaish al Mehdi," he said, using the Arabic name for the militant group.

"We've been pleased with some of the statements we've heard in recent months about the desire for that organisation to no longer be a militia, that the leadership say that they called for constructive engagement, an end to military or militant roles for those that are in the organisation."

As yet there has been little or no resistance in Sadr City -- a sign U.S. officials will be hoping indicates a genuine change of heart on the part of the Mehdi Army rather than just a decision to lie low and avoid confrontation in the short term.