World Aug. 09, 2008 - 06:35AM JST ( 27 )

NAJAF, Iraq —

Radical Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr has ordered his Mahdi Army militia to lay down its arms if a security pact between Baghdad and Washington provides for a withdrawal from Iraq, his spokesman said on Friday.

“We want to see whether the provisions of the agreement are serious. We will be satisfied if the agreement contains the withdrawal of U.S. forces,” Salah al-Obeidi, chief spokesman for the Sadr movement, said.

“If so, we will complete the reorganization of the Mahdi Army which aims to transform it into a social organization,” he said in the Shiite stronghold of Najaf, about 160 kilometers south of Baghdad.

But he also warned that if the withdrawal terms were not written into the agreement then Sadr’s forces would remain armed.

“We will be forced to await the decision of withdrawal of American forces.”

Baghdad and Washington are still negotiating an agreement that would govern U.S. troop levels and allow them to operate after a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

U.S. President George W Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in Iraq by the end of July, but controversy has delayed the arrangement.

The proposed pact has drawn sharp criticism from Iraq’s various political factions, especially from the deeply anti-American Sadr.

He announced in June that he would replace the 60,000-strong Mahdi Army with a leaner and meaner fighting force to target the U.S.-led occupation.

Other members of the militia will refocus on cultural and religious issues in the poverty-stricken slums of central and southern Iraq, Sadr’s main power base.

A ceasefire drawn up a year ago has been a key factor in violence levels dropping to four-year lows.

The reform of the Mahdi Army could eventually lead to the emergence of a movement modeled on the Palestinian movement Hamas or Lebanese Hezbollah, experts have said.

Maliki said last month that he was negotiating for the deal to set a timetable for a withdrawal of foreign forces.

Iraqi politicians have bristled at the idea of a continuing defense pact with the United States, but have also said they are on track to concluding an arrangement.

They have also expressed reservations about how many bases Washington should retain, what powers the U.S. military should continue to hold to detain Iraqi civilians, and what immunity U.S. troops should have from Iraqi law.

The White House has so far refused to be locked into a fixed date for withdrawing U.S. combat troops, but has suggested a series of target dates for giving Iraqis control over security in different parts of the war-torn country.

With about 142,500 American troops still Iraq, the issue is politically sensitive in Washington as the November U.S. presidential election draws nearer.

Meanwhile, in an indication that violence remains a problem in the north of Iraq, 18 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in a car bomb attack on market in the northern town of Tal Afar, a hospital official said.

A U.S. army spokesperson, Sam Smith, put the death toll at 20.

Tal Afar is located just west of the flashpoint city of Mosul, capital of Niniveh province and seen by the U.S. army as the last urban holdhout of the terror network al-Qaida in Iraq.

The United States a few years back hailed Tal Afar as a model of improved security but the town has since become one of the most dangerous in the country. In March 2007, 152 people were killed in a bomb attack in Tal Afar.

Wire reports