Internal pressure grows on Iraq's Sadr to end truce

By Khaled Farhan

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Influential members within the movement loyal to Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr have told him they do not want his Mehdi Army militia to extend a ceasefire when it expires this month, Sadr's spokesman said on Monday.

The U.S. military says the Shi'ite cleric's announcement on August 29 to freeze the activities of the feared Mehdi Army for six months has been vital to cutting violence. A return to hostilities could seriously jeopardize those security gains.

Sadr has been gauging the mood among senior figures and five main committees had reported back with their views on the truce, Sadr's spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi, one of the cleric's senior officials in the southern holy city of Najaf, told Reuters.

Ubaidi said one of those committees, made up of Sadrist legislators in Baghdad, had recommended not renewing the ceasefire, citing problems with the authorities in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad.

"The parliament committee said they don't want the ceasefire to remain. They want it lifted because of oppressive acts by security forces in Diwaniya," he said without elaborating.

Recent statements from Sadr's camp have indicated growing unhappiness that followers were being targeted by Iraqi forces.

Ubaidi said he was not authorized to say what the four other committees, representing political and media groups, provincial offices and imams, had recommended.

He said Sadr would issue a statement around February 23 if he had agreed to extend the ceasefire, declared following clashes between his supporters and police during a pilgrimage in the southern city of Kerbala. Silence would mean it was over.