NAJAF, Iraq - Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will consult senior religious leaders and disband his Mehdi Army militia if they instruct him to, a senior aide said on Monday.
The surprise announcement came on the day Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a television interview, ordered the Mehdi Army to disband or Sadr's followers would be excluded from Iraqi political life.
It was the first time Sadr has offered to disband the Mehdi Army, whose black-masked fighters are principle actors in Iraq 's five-year-old war and the main foes of U.S. and Iraqi forces in a recent upsurge in fighting.
Senior aide Hassan Zargani said Sadr would seek rulings from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq 's most senior Shi'ite cleric, as well as senior Shi'ite clergy based in Iran, on whether to dissolve the Mehdi Army, and would obey their orders.
That effectively puts the militia's fate in the hands of the reclusive Sistani, 77, a cleric revered by all of Iraq 's Shi'ite factions and whose edicts carry the force of Islamic law, but who almost never intervenes in politics.
"Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his offices in Najaf and Qom to form a delegation to visit Sistani in Najaf and (other leaders) in Qom to discuss disbanding the Mehdi Army," Zargani said.
"If they order the Mehdi Army to disband, Moqtada al-Sadr and the Sadr movement will obey the orders of the religious leaders," he told Reuters. Najaf in Iraq , where Sistani is based, and Qom in Iran are the main seats of Shi'ite authority.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said he could not comment on the statement by Sadr's aide. Sistani's spokesman, Hamed al-Khafaf, declined to comment.
Crackdown
Maliki ordered a crackdown on the militia two weeks ago in the southern city of Basra, provoking clashes throughout Baghdad and the Shi'ite south that led to the country's worst fighting since at least the first half of 2007.
That fighting ebbed a week ago when Sadr ordered the militia off the streets, but picked up again on Sunday with clashes around the Mehdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, a Baghdad slum.
In the interview broadcast on Monday, the prime minister singled out the Mehdi Army by name for the first time and ordered it to disband.
"Solving the problem comes in no other way than dissolving the Mehdi Army," Maliki told U.S. network CNN. "They no longer have a right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mehdi Army."
He said government troops would continue the Sadr City crackdown: "We have opened the door for confrontation, a real confrontation with these gangs, and we will not stop until we are in full control of these areas."
The developments come at a pivotal time, two days before Sadr has called a million followers onto the streets for anti-American demonstrations and one day before the top U.S. officials in Iraqi are due to brief Congress on progress.
General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are expected to say that further withdrawals of American troops should be put on hold after 20,000 come home by July.
The fighting which flared up on Sunday persisted into Monday. Medical sources said a further nine people died and more than 60 were wounded overnight, after 25 people were killed and more than 90 were wounded in Sunday's fighting.
"The Iraqis are taking sporadic gunfire and rocket-propelled grenade fire but we haven't heard about any reports of pitched battles or casualties. They're just firing at the Iraqis and us," said U.S. spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover.
The U.S. military announced the deaths of two more U.S. soldiers killed on Sunday, bringing that day's toll to seven, one of the deadliest days for Americans in months.
Three soldiers were killed and 31 injured by mortar bombs or rockets, including two killed and 17 wounded inside the Green Zone compound, where staff at the world's largest U.S. embassy now carry flak jackets and helmets.
Sistani, who almost never leaves his house in Najaf, has intervened in Iraqi politics only a handful of times but on each occasion his rulings have been decisive.
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