Iraq PM worried about US troops killing civilians

BAGHDAD - Iraq's new prime minister, clearly determined to assert his sovereign authority, said today his patience was wearing thin with excuses from US troops that they kill civilians "by mistake".

Vowing to demand answers about the deaths of civilians in the town of Haditha last year, Nuri al-Maliki said: "We are worried about the increase in 'mistakes'.

"I am not saying that they are intentional. But it is worrying for us," he told Reuters in an interview.

Maliki also pledged to disband militias, and said he was ready to overrule squabbling parties in his coalition by naming his own choices as ministers of defence and the interior.

Speaking in his office in Baghdad, the straight-talking Islamist who spent years waging war on Saddam Hussein from exile in Syria said he would fly to Iraq's second city Basra tomorrow to end faction fighting among fellow Shi'ites.

"There's no way we can leave Basra, the gateway to Iraq, our imports and exports, at the mercy of criminal, terrorist gangs. We will use force against these gangs," said Maliki.

He took office 10 days ago at the head of a grand coalition of majority Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds. Much liked by colleagues and respected as a decision-maker by US officials, he finds little time to smile. His shoulders seem to hunch in anticipation of much fighting and under the burdens of office.

The United States sees his government as the best chance to prevent Iraq from sliding into civil war three years after it invaded, and of paving the way for a withdrawal of US troops.

Maliki has talked up the prospect of foreign troops leaving and has mentioned a timetable of 18 months for Iraqi forces having overall control of the country.

He appeared keen to speak up for the concerns felt especially among Sunnis over US tactics in their areas.

He vowed to investigate killings of Iraqi civilians in the western town of Haditha last November after local witnesses said they were shot by Marines.

US defence officials have said charges including murder may be brought against Marines following a US investigation into the 24 civilian deaths in Haditha, a stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

"There is a limit to the acceptable excuses. Yes a mistake may happen but there is an acceptable limit to mistakes," Maliki said. "We will ask for answers not only about Haditha but about any operation ... in which killing happened by mistake and we will hold those who did it responsible."

Many Iraqis believe unjustified killings by US troops are common, though few have been confirmed by investigations.

Speaking 10 days after he named a cabinet without interior and defence ministers, Maliki said that if no consensus were found by the next session of parliament he would exercise his constitutional right to put his own nominees to a vote. Parliament is next due to meet on Monday.

"I'm giving them a final deadline to give their opinion on the candidates now," he said, referring to efforts to reach a consensus deal among the main coalition blocs, Shi'ites, Sunnis, Kurds and secular parties.

"If an agreement is not reached then I will go to parliament with candidates and put them to parliament. If I get the votes then the candidates will be confirmed.

He said the hold-up had "put the government on the line".

In principle, Maliki's dominant Shi'ite Alliance is promised the interior ministry, but it is under pressure from minorities and from US officials engaged in the process to find someone seen as less sectarian in outlook than the previous minister.

Minority Sunnis, who are promised the defence ministry, accuse the previous interior minister of overseeing the use of Shi'ite militias in the police as sectarian death squads.

Maliki also said no pro-government party militias would be exempt from his plan to disband irregular armed forces, a vow that could put him at odds with close coalition allies.

Pressed to confirm that even the biggest militias run by governing parties would have to go, he specifically named the Kurdish peshmerga, the Mehdi Army of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the Shi'ite Badr movement as being among those that would have to be disbanded.

"Our plans on the militias must go ahead because the presence of militias ... will mean the security situation remaining unstable. The militia disarmament plan is linked to reconciliation and development in security," Maliki said.

- REUTERS