Iraqi militia leader: My influence is waning

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The grass-roots cleric whose Mehdi Army militia has gained notoriety among coalition troops admitted many followers have split from his movement or do not heed his leadership.

Muqtada al-Sadr made the admission during Friday noon prayers and it was posted on his Web site. The Mehdi Army has been an active player in violence across Iraq.

In his statement, al-Sadr said: "Many persons who are close to me have split for materialistic reasons or for wanting to be independent, and this was one of the reasons behind my absence.

"Yet I still have many people loyal and faithful to me and I advise them to direct society toward education and teaching."

He said, "the presence of the occupier" and his movement's failure "to liberate Iraq ... as well as the disobedience of many people and their deviation from the right course has pushed me into isolation in protest over this."

Al-Sadr in August suspended the activities of his Mehdi Army militia, and that move is believed to be a key reason for a drop in violence in Baghdad and other places.

The cease-fire, at first declared for six months, was extended recently. Al-Sadr is thought to have been either in Iran or the Iraqi city of Najaf in recent months.

However, many al-Sadr followers and Shiite militants who sympathized with the his hard-line anti-U.S. views have ignored the cease-fire. Those "rogue" Special Groups are regularly targeted in raids by U.S. troops.

Meanwhile, the United States and Iraq were to begin on Saturday negotiations on a blueprint for a long-term relationship as well as a legal basis for U.S. troops to remain in Iraq, The Associated Press reported.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker will lead the U.S. team, which will include senior officials from the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House's National Security Council, AP reported.

The U.S. expected a lengthy negotiation, with a goal of completing a deal by December, AP cited Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell as saying.

On Friday a coalition raid in Baghdad targeted Shiite militants who flout the al-Sadr cease-fire, the U.S military said. It added a wanted militant with links to Iran was captured.

The captured man is suspected of arranging training in Iran for "Special Groups criminal militia members," including bomb-making and sniper skills, the military said.

"We will continue to pursue the criminal militias who dishonor Muqtada al-Sadr's cease-fire pledge by committing senseless acts of violence against the Iraqi people and the security forces that protect them," Multi-National Forces-Iraq spokeswoman Lt. Col. Maura Gillen said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Friday has denounced the twin bombing attacks that ripped through a Baghdad commercial district on Thursday, killing at least 69 people, as "a heinous crime." Watch the aftermath of the attack »

Al-Maliki on Friday ordered police and soldiers to bolster security in the area and chase down the perpetrators.

"This crime reveals the inherent hatred of the terrorists against the Iraqi people, and their despair to carry out their evil plans after they received repeated defeats at the hands of the sons of our armed forces," al-Maliki said, according to a press release from his office.

"The remnants of terrorism committed a new heinous crime against innocent civilians in Karrada district in Baghdad which claimed the lives of many civilians and wounded many others."

An Interior Ministry official told CNN on Friday that the death toll in the back-to-back bombings now stands at 69, with 120 wounded.

The bombings occurred in Karrada, a bustling commercial area that is busy when the Muslim weekend begins on Thursday nights.

A roadside bomb exploded first, around 7 p.m. As others gathered to help the wounded, a suicide bomber amid the crowd detonated an explosive vest, killing and wounding many more.

A security officer for Iraqi Shiite Vice-President Adel Abdul-Mahdi was among the dead, the ministry said on Friday, adding that the officer was not targeted in the attack but happened to be in the crowd when the bombs exploded.

The U.S Embassy issued a statement saying the bombs were the work of al Qaeda in Iraq, the predominantly Sunni militant group.

"Those killed and wounded in the barbaric attack on a shopping area were innocent citizens attempting to live side-by-side with one another in the new Iraq. Such indiscriminate mass violence demonstrates that al Qaeda in Iraq will spare no effort, however brutal, to attempt to re-ignite sectarian strife in Iraq," the statement said.

The attacks raise the prospect of renewed carnage in Baghdad, which has seen a major reduction in violence in recent months.

The deadly blasts were followed by three more bombings on Friday in Mosul -- about 260 miles (420 km) north of Baghdad -- which took the lives of six people.

A suicide attack at 7 a.m. killed five security officers and also wounded 17 other people, according to a police official.

Police said most of the dead and wounded were members of either the police or civil defense forces.

In the afternoon, a roadside bomb exploded outside a police officer's house in the city's Nabi-Sheet neighborhood in southern Mosul, causing minor damage.

Minutes later, when residents of the neighborhood gathered to check the location of the incident, another roadside bomb went off, killing one person and wounding 14 others. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report

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