Sunday, April 13, 2008

Iranian-Backed Maliki: You Can Keep Your Militias As Long As Remain Sectarian And As Long As They Split Iraq


PM: Status of Kurdish peshmerga remains unchanged despite crackdown on militias

"BAGHDAD: Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the head of the Kurdish regional authority agreed Saturday to retain the current semiautonomous status of the peshmerga — the military force responsible for security in Iraqi Kurdistan — despite a government crackdown on militias elsewhere in Iraq.

"The guards of the province have the cover of legitimacy inside Kurdistan because they form organized forces," al-Maliki said after a meeting with Nechervan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdish government in northern Iraq.

The decision on the peshmerga comes after al-Maliki demanded that anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr disband his Mahdi Army or quit politics.

Iraqi forces supported by U.S. and British troops have mounted a series of attacks on the militants in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City district and in the southern port city of Basra, both strongholds of the Mahdi Army........"

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