Sadr Braces For Crack-Down.

Representatives from radical Shi'ite mullah Muqtada al-Sadr on Jan. 22 said they were ending a two-month boycott of the government - a conciliatory gesture by a group facing a crack-down by US and Iraqi troops. "We are ending our boycott of the ministries and the parliament", Baha' al-A'raji, a senior member of the Sadrist group, told a news conference.

The Sadrists, who control three main ministries, suspended their participation in the cabinet and parliament in protest at Maliki's decision to meet President Bush amid growing US pressure on the government to rein in Jaysh al-Mahdi.

The declaration came as the US military said a 3,200-strong brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division had arrived and would become operational in Baghdad on Feb. 1 as part of a planned "surge" of US deployments aimed primarily at stabilising the capital. It also followed a bloody attack on US forces in the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala on Jan. 20, in which five US soldiers were killed.

While the perpetrators are still unknown and the city is home to several Shi'ite militant movements, the Jan. 20 attack demonstrated that neutralising Shi'ite militias is likely to remain a challenge for the government, even if the Sadrist political leadership co-operates.

The end of the boycott clears the way for deals aimed at reconciling Iraq's Sunnis and Shi'ites. Maliki's government would have been reluctant to negotiate while the Sadrists, whose grass-roots strength among the Shi'ite poor is unmatched, remained outside the government. It reinforces earlier indications that Sadr is seeking to avoid a confrontation with the US military, even after the arrest of several Jaysh al-Mahdi leaders blamed for murdering Sunni civilians.

The Sadrists are at a crossroads. Their response to government plans to demobilise their militia will determine whether they become what they have long claimed to be - a political and religious movement which supports and is part of the government - or continue to run an armed state-within-a-state in much of the Shi'ite part of the country. But Sadr is struggling to control his movement, much of which has fractured into smaller cells based around charismatic leaders who engage in freelance attacks against Sunnis and the US military.

The US military said late on Jan. 22 that more than 600 members of Jaysh al-Mahdi were in detention awaiting prosecution - the latest indication that PM Maliki has withdrawn political protection from the group. The statement is unusual in that it detailed the number of operations against specific organisations and seems intended to show that there is a new emphasis on neutralising Jaysh al-Mahdi. It said that in the past 45 days, the US-led coalition and Iraqi security forces had carried out 52 operations focused primarily against the militia, compared to 42 targeting Sunni insurgents.

Maliki has been accused of failing to act on his government's seven-month-old pledge to demobilise militias, but in recent weeks his aides have hinted that the PM had authorised a crackdown on Jaysh al-Mahdi, some of whose commanders are believed to be responsible for the torture and killing of thousands of Sunnis.

Maliki may have decided he needed to move against the militia to avoid losing US support and to avoid further alienating Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbours, or because he feels that his support among the Shi'ites has been strengthened after the Dec. 30 execution of Saddam Hussein.

The Sadrists' apparent acquiescence to the dismantling of their military wing, however, might not last, if Sunni insurgents succeed in striking at Shi'ite civilian targets. Many Shi'ites consider Jaysh al-Mahdi roadblocks and its strikes against Sunni insurgent mosques to be their best defence against the car bombers who have killed thousands over the past few years.

Bombers on Jan. 23 struck two separate Shi'ite targets in the capital, killing at least five people, and on Jan. 22 a double car bombing in a Baghdad market district left at least 88 dead, the bloodiest attack in two months. The bombings are particularly sensitive as they come at the beginning of the month of Muharram, during which Shi'ites commemorate the seventh-century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein.