By Michael Holden
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior U.S. commander promised onSaturday that U.S. and Iraqi forces would not attack Moqtadaal-Sadr's Mehdi Army if it stuck to a ceasefire, after militiamembers expressed fears it was being exploited to target them.
The Shi'ite cleric's decision to renew his ceasefire for afurther six months on Friday was hailed by the Iraqi and U.S.governments, which said it would help prevent a return tosectarian violence that pushed Iraq towards all-out civil war.
However, a number of Mehdi Army members fear the ceasefirewill expose them to attacks from U.S. and Iraqi securityforces, which they have accused of exploiting an initial trucecalled last August to arrest scores of Sadrists.
"We want to emphasise that Iraqi security forces andCoalition forces are only targeting those that commit criminaland terrorist acts," Brigadier-General Mike Milano, deputycommander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, told reporters.
"We will continue to treat those who honour the ceasefirewith respect and restraint."
Analysts have cautioned U.S. forces not to provoke theMehdi Army, which has tens of thousands of fighters and wasonce described by the Pentagon as the greatest threat to Iraq'ssecurity. The militia staged two uprisings in 2004.
"SPECIAL GROUPS"
The U.S. military has been aggressively pursuing what itdescribes as "special groups", members of Sadr's militia who itsays do not recognise the ceasefire and are trained andequipped by Iran. Tehran denies the accusations.
Milano said 31 people had been killed this week in some ofthe deadliest mortar and rocket strikes for months, attackswhich the U.S. military usually blames on such "specialgroups".
In the latest incident on Saturday, a barrage of mortarbombs or rockets hit Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone,home to the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government ministries,although there were no reports of casualties or damage.
U.S. commanders say Sadr's ceasefire has been a majorfactor in improved security. At the height of the sectarianviolence, hundreds of bodies were found dumped on Baghdad'sstreets. The execution-style killings were widely blamed on theMehdi Army.
Milano said since June last year attacks in Baghdad weredown 75 percent and civilian deaths had fallen 93 percent.
But U.S. commanders still caution that al Qaeda in Iraq,which they now say is the greatest security risk, remainscapable of carrying out deadly attacks.
Iraqi police said they killed nine al Qaeda militants in agunfight on Saturday in the city of Samarra, where the bombingof a revered Shi'ite shrine two years ago triggered the wave ofsectarian violence.
"Nine terrorists were killed from al Qaeda including fourforeign fighters, one Algerian, a Syrian and two Saudis," saida senior provincial police officer, who declined to be named.
A local hospital said it had received nine bodies withgunshot wounds.
In Baghdad, the head of Iraq's national journalists' unionwas seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire on his car.Journalists have frequently been targeted in Iraq, which isconsidered by media rights groups to be the most dangerousplace in the world for journalists to work.
(Writing by Michael Holden; additional reporting by RossColvin, Tim Cocks and Aws Qusay in Baghdad; editing by MaryGabriel)
