Muqtada raises the stakes in Iraq

DAMASCUS - Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has raised the stakes in Iraq by calling on his militia, the Mehdi Army, and Iraqi security forces to stop fighting each other. In a statement delivered by Muqtada from a hiding place inside Iraq (believed to be Kufa), he said, "O army and police of Iraq, do not follow the occupier - he is an enemy."

Muqtada is charismatic - certainly by Iraqi standards - and his appeal to the men in uniform to split from the US carries much weight, as they see him as a resistance leader dedicated to the liberation of Iraq.

Muqtada's call comes as the Mehdi Army is engaged in fighting with Iraqi and US forces in the central city of Diwaniya. The fighting broke out on Friday after the United States launched Operation Black Eagle aimed at returning control of Diwaniya to the Iraqi government. The US military says more than 60 militants have been killed or captured by the about 3,300 US and Iraqi troops. In the past year the town has been a battlefield for Shi'ite and Sunni militias.

The operation is an extension of the Baghdad security plan that has been under way in the capital since February. Similar battles to the one in Diwaniya took place last October, also with the aim of wiping out the Mehdi Army, but they, too, failed.

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