Sadr party wary of liquidation campaign

BAGHDAD, March 21 (UPI) -- A member of the party loyal to Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr accused the presidential and vice presidential parties of plotting military action against them.

Ahmed al-Massoudi of the Sadrist Movement accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party and the head of the Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, of collaborating with "officers of militias merged recently into security agencies" to "liquidate" the Sadrist Movement, Voices of Iraq reported Friday.

Massoudi said that despite rhetoric claiming the "militias," presumably Sons of Iraq, were employed to enforce the rule of law in Iraq, the real objective was to target members of the Sadrist Movement and forces loyal to the bloc.

"Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is directly supervising this scheme with officers from the Dawa Party and the SIIC," he said.

Ali al-Abid with the Dawa Party, however, refuted the claims, noting his party "has nothing to do with issues related to security whatsoever."

Abid echoed earlier statements from Sadr, saying he would disown members of his forces who violated a cease-fire; however, Sadr also released a message earlier saying his forces, the Mahdi Army, could respond to attacks by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Meanwhile, Voices of Iraq reported Friday that Iraqi security forces conducted a raid on a Sadr headquarters in Diwaniya, about 100 miles south of Baghdad, as skirmishes broke out between the Mahdi Army and U.S.-led security forces.