Radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered heads of his Mehdi Army militia to leave Iraq and asked the government to arrest "outlaws" under a US- backed crackdown, Iraq's president said today.
President Jalal Talabani made the remarks after Iraq closed its borders with Iran and Syria and as US and Iraqi troops tightened their grip on Baghdad, patrolling neighbourhoods and setting up checkpoints that searched even official convoys.
Insurgents defied a sweep by US and Iraqi soldiers of the volatile southern, mainly Sunni, Doura district, exploding two car bombs that killed four people. A bomb planted on a bus in the Mehdi Army stronghold of Sadr City killed three people.
Talabani said he was unaware of Sadr's whereabouts. The US military has said the anti-American cleric is in Iran, but his aides insist he is in Iraq's holy Shia city Najaf. An Iraqi government official said he was in Tehran, but only for a short visit.
"I think many of his top Mehdi Army officials have been ordered to leave Iraq to make the mission of the security forces easier," the president was quoted as saying in a statement from his office.
Washington calls the Mehdi militia the greatest threat to Iraq's security. US and Iraqi forces have arrested hundreds of Mehdi Army members in recent months.
The statement from Talabani's office added that Sadr supported the crackdown and had given the government the go- ahead to arrest any "outlaws".
His comments and the melting away of many ordinary Mehdi fighters from Sadr City's streets are the clearest signs yet that the militia will not stand and fight like it did in 2004, when it twice rose up against American forces.
Some Shia officials outside Sadr 's movement say the militia wants to avoid a battle to protect the young cleric's political gains. Sadr 's movement holds a quarter of the parliamentary seats in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.