Mahdi militia under siege in Sadr City

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BAGHDAD -- Mahdi Army fighters said yesterday they were under siege in their Sadr City stronghold as U.S. and Iraqi troops killed or seized key commanders in nighttime raids. Two commanders of the Shi'ite militia said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has stopped protecting the group under pressure from Washington and threats from Sunni Muslim Arab governments.

The commanders' accounts of a growing siege mentality inside the organization could represent a tactical and propaganda feint, but there was mounting evidence the militia was increasingly off balance and had ordered its gunmen to melt into the population. To avoid capture, commanders report no longer using cell phones and fighters are removing their black uniforms and hiding their weapons during the day.

Violence continued in Baghdad yesterday, claiming 59 lives, including 10 from a triple car bombing at a vegetable market.

An al Qaeda-linked coalition of Iraqi Sunni insurgents claimed responsibility for an attack on a convoy of the Washington-based National Democratic Institute. The attack Wednesday killed Andrea Parhamovich, 28, of Perry, Ohio, and three security contractors from Hungary, Croatia and Iraq.

During much of his nearly eight months in office, Mr. al-Maliki has blocked or ordered an end to many U.S.-led operations against the Mahdi Army, which is run by radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the prime minister's key political backer. But he reportedly had a change of heart in late November while going into a meeting in Jordan with President Bush.

Yesterday, Mr. al-Maliki said the U.S. plan to send more troops into Baghdad could "drastically improve" the situation there, but complained that Washington has not provided Iraqi forces with adequate equipment, the Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported.

"The situation would be much better if the United States had immediately sent our security forces more adequate weapons and equipment. If they had committed themselves more and with greater speed, we would have had a lot fewer deaths among Iraqi civilians and American soldiers," the newspaper quoted Mr. al-Maliki as saying.

According to the newspaper Mr. al-Maliki also struck back at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for suggesting he was in a weak position and on borrowed time -- a remark Miss Rice yesterday regretted as a translation error.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the interpretation of the prime minister's comments as criticism of the Bush administration was "baseless."

Mr. al-Maliki is said by aides to have told Mr. Bush in Jordan that he wanted the Iraqi army and police to be in the lead, but he would no longer prevent U.S. attempts to roll up the Mahdi Army.