Radical Cleric Shifts Stance on Interim Government

A radical cleric whose uprising two months ago has left hundreds dead and threatened to exacerbate tensions in the Shiite Muslim heartland said Friday that he would cooperate with the interim government if it works to end the U.S. military presence.

Meanwhile, insurgents blew up a police station south of Baghdad in the fourth such attack against Iraqi security installations in less than a week.

The conciliatory tone by cleric Muqtada Sadr came during a sermon read by an aide in Kufa, the scene of recent fighting between his Al Mahdi militia and U.S. forces. The cleric said he supported the government and asked his followers to “help me take this society to the path of security and peace.”

Sadr had disparaged the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi as a tool of the Americans. But he apparently softened his stand under pressure from mainstream Shiite leaders.

In an interview Friday with Al Arabiya television, Sadr’s spokesman, Ahmed Shibani, said the cleric was ready for a dialogue with the government “on condition that it works to end the occupation and clearly announces to the Iraqi people and to the world that it rejects the occupation.”

The U.S.-led occupation is scheduled to end June 30 with the transfer of sovereignty to Allawi’s government, and the U.N. resolution approved Tuesday by the Security Council sets a deadline of 2006 for ending the multinational military presence.

Insurgents have been increasing attacks on Iraqi police in a bid to shake public confidence in the new administration.

On Friday, assailants surrounded the police station in Yusufiya, south of Baghdad, and opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, police Lt. Sattar Abdul-Reda said.

After the police fled via a side door, the attackers blew up the building, he said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. command reported Friday that a soldier died Wednesday of wounds suffered in an ambush in eastern Baghdad.