Iraqi Shiite leader rejects role for US reinforcements

by Hassan Abdul Zahra
Fri Jul 28, 1:49 PM ET

NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - One of Iraq's most influential Shiite leaders rejected the use of US forces to stabilize Iraq's security situation, as the Pentagon announced an increase in troop numbers.

Abdel Aziz Hakim told a rally in the holy city of Najaf that Iraqis should handle their own security, despite the mounting death toll in Baghdad, which is in the grip of a dirty war between rival Sunni and Shiite death squads.

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"We must activate the project of popular committees to secure the neighbourhoods," he said, echoing calls from other Shiite leaders for local militias to protect their districts from Iraq's roving death squads.

"The security file should be handed over to Iraqi forces and no one should interfere with it," he told supporters in Najaf. "The interference in the work of Iraqi security forces prevents them from catching terrorists."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060728/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_060728174815