BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki promised Wednesday to crack down on Shiite Muslim militias and Sunni Arab insurgents, warning that no one -- not even political ally Muqtada Sadr -- would be above the law.
"We will not allow any politicians to interfere with this Baghdad security plan ... whether they are Sunnis or Shiites, Arabs or Kurds, militias or parties, insurgents or terrorists," Maliki said in a rare interview.
The prime minister's comments appeared to align his government's security plan with the Bush administration's call to confront Shiite militias. But in other remarks, Maliki underscored his differences with the U.S., suggesting that American miscalculations had worsened the bloodshed in Iraq, and warning that his patience for political negotiation with warring factions was wearing thin.
"When military operations start in Baghdad, all other tracks will stop," Maliki said. "We gave the political side a great chance, and we have now to use the authority of the state to impose the law and tackle or confront people who break it."
U.S. officials have said that renewed military operations should go hand in hand with efforts at political reconciliation between warring Shiites and Sunnis.
Maliki said if Iraqi security forces were given sufficient training and equipment, they could stabilize the country enough to allow the withdrawal of U.S. troops starting in three to six months -- a period in which President Bush's proposed troop buildup would still be underway.
He said if better U.S. training and supplies had come earlier, lives could have been saved.
"I think that within three to six months our need for the American troops will dramatically go down," Maliki said. "That's on the condition that there are real strong efforts to support our military forces."
The U.S.-Iraq security plan involves sending 21,500 more American troops to Iraq and 8,000 to 10,000 Iraqi forces to Baghdad in an effort to quell the civil war between Sunnis and Shiites that on average kills more than 100 people a day.
Maliki said Iraqi security forces this week had detained 400 Shiite militiamen affiliated with Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric whose followers constitute part of Maliki's political base. He offered no further details.
Return to political form
The interview, which took place in a pavilion inside the heavily fortified Green Zone, was a return to the freewheeling style that characterized Maliki's political manner before he became prime minister last year.
