Iraq's Sadr threatens to scrap ceasefire

By Dean Yates and Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened on Tuesday to end a truce he imposed on his militia last year, raising the prospect of worsening violence on a day when top U.S. officials testified on Iraq in Washington.

The U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, told a Senate panel he was recommending a 45-day pause in troop cuts after July when an initial drawdown is completed. He said he would then decide over time when to recommend more reductions.

His comments suggest Washington will still have some 140,000 troops in Iraq in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election in November, roughly the same number as before reinforcements were sent in early 2007 to halt Iraq's slide into civil war.

The Mehdi Army militia ceasefire had been credited with helping to sharply reduce violence across Iraq. Scrapping the truce could trigger widespread fighting with security forces and plunge Iraq back into a deadly spiral of sectarian violence.

Sadr's warning came a day after Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki threatened to bar the cleric's movement from political life unless he disbanded the militia, which has fought fresh battles with Iraqi and U.S. forces in the past two weeks.

"The Iraqi government should know that the Mehdi Army will stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iraqi people to provide all they need from security, stability and independence," Sadr said in a statement sent to his offices across Iraq.

"If it is required to lift the freeze (ceasefire) in order to carry out our goals, objectives, doctrines and religious principles and patriotism, we will do that later."

American and Iraqi troops clashed with gunmen in the cleric's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City for a third day running on Tuesday, part of an upsurge in fighting in the capital.