Iraq's Sadr suspends armed actions by militia

By Waleed Ibrahim and Wisam Mohammed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr suspended all armed actions by his Mehdi Army on Wednesday to remove rogue elements from the militia after 52 people were killed in gun battles in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala.

Asked if the unexpected order meant no attacks on U.S. troops, one senior aide who declined to be identified said: "All kinds of armed actions are to be frozen, without exception."

The battles on Tuesday appeared to pit Iraq's two biggest Shi'ite groups against each other -- followers of Sadr and his Mehdi Army, and the rival Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), whose armed wing controls police in much of the south.

"The aim is to remove bad members who are involved in the Mehdi Army and working for their personal interests ... to hurt the Mehdi Army's reputation," said another aide.

Analysts said the test of the six-month suspension order would be whether his fighters obeyed because it was no longer clear how much authority Sadr exercised over the Mehdi Army.

It is believed to have fragmented and the U.S. military says rogue factions receive funding, training and weapons from Iran.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Wednesday militants involved in the violence in Kerbala wanted to blow up the Imam Hussein shrine, one of the holiest to Shi'ite Muslims.

"From our initial investigation, we found some evidence of who did this act... the intention of this act was to storm into the shrine of Imam Hussein and blow it up," Maliki said from inside the shrine during a visit to Kerbala, 110 km south of Baghdad.