It is not too late for firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to lay down his arms and be welcomed into the political fold, Iraq's new president said yesterday.
Interim President Ghazi al-Yawar, recently returned from the G8 summit in the US, said he welcomed al-Sadr's recent decision to create a political party that could take part in Iraq's first democratic elections in the new year.
"I kept on saying consistently that if I were in his shoes I would try to go to the political arena instead of raising arms," Yawar told reporters outside the Iraqi government building.
"He has supporters, he has constituents, he should go through the political process and I commend this smart move on his side."
Al-Sadr launched an uprising against US-led occupying troops two months ago, but earlier this month agreed a truce in Najaf and Kerbala under pressure from Shiite religious leaders.
The US-led administration in Iraq says al-Sadr must surrender to an Iraqi arrest warrant in connection with the murder of a rival cleric in Najaf last year, and is reluctant to see him take a leading role in Iraq's political process.
US troops arrested a senior aide and spokesman to al-Sadr in an overnight raid in the holy city of Kerbala, his office said.
But Yawar said the young cleric was innocent until proven guilty and could enter Iraqi politics as soon as he disbands his Mahdi Army militia, thought to number several thousand.
"In the new Iraq nobody is above the law. However, he is not convicted, his name has been brought as a suspect in a certain incident. So he has to make sure he clears himself," Yawar said.
Meanwhile, a series of explosions rocked a US base at the eastern entrance of Kerbala yesterday, while elsewhere more Iraqis were reported killed in separate attacks.
Witnesses said mortar shells were fired from an area near the base which is heavily populated. US forces set up joint checkpoints with Kerbala police and civil defense corps and fired at the area from where the shells were believed to have been fired.
In Babylon, south of Baghdad, a professor at the Babylon Religious College was assassinated as he was leaving the campus yesterday morning, witnesses said. Islamic history professor Abdel Hussein Abdullah was shot by unknown assailants from a speeding car.
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