Maliki says Sadrist foes "worse than al Qaeda"

By Peter Graff

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki raised the stakes in his five-day-old crackdown on Shi'ite militants on Saturday, describing his foes as "worse than al Qaeda".

Fighting raged in Basra and Baghdad, threatening to draw U.S. forces deeper into Maliki's confrontation with cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and endangering a ceasefire that has been in place for seven months.

U.S. forces said they had killed 48 militants in air strikes and gun battles across the capital the previous day.

At least 133 bodies and 647 wounded were taken into hospitals in eastern Baghdad over five days of clashes, the head of the area's health directorate, Ali Bustan, said.

In Basra, government troops said they had killed 120 fighters. Scores of people were reported killed in other towns across the south where fighting has spread.

"We used to talk about al Qaeda. Unfortunately it seems there are some among us who are worse than al Qaeda," Maliki said in a televised meeting with tribal leaders in Basra, where he has personally overseen the crackdown since Tuesday.

After years in which Iraq was torn apart by violence between Shi'ites and Sunni Arab militants like al Qaeda, the past week's violence has exposed another bloody rift -- among Shi'ites themselves. Parties in Maliki's government are battling followers of Sadr, who in many Shi'ite areas rule the streets.

The crackdown poses a dilemma for the United States.