Moqtada al-Sadr, the virulently anti-American militia leader, announced yesterday that he was forming a new, exclusive wing of his al-Mahdi Army to fight US forces, and that most of his supporters would now concentrate on civilian works.

The cleric appeared to be trying to assert control over his sprawling, rag-tag army, accused of some of the worst death-squad atrocities in Iraq in recent years and which the Americans say has been partly coopted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. “The resistance will be carried out exclusively by a special group which I will announce later,” said a statement by the Shia militia leader, who holds the junior clerical rank of hojatoleslam.

Al-Mahdi Army, which ruled swaths of Baghdad during the height of the capital’s civil war, has been in disarray in recent months, with many Iraqis blaming it for the horrific violence that has torn their society apart.

In March, Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia Prime Minister who once depended on the Sadr block’s support, launched an attack on the army in its Basra stronghold, while simultaneously fighting it with US backing in Sadr City, its Baghdad fiefdom.

After negotiations between the Government and the Sadrists, mediated by a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Mahdi Army yielded control of Basra and then most of Sadr City to Iraqi forces, indicating that a weakened Hojatoleslam al-Sadr was being forced on to a more political track.

The religious demagogue said that the new group – over which he will exert more direct control – “would continue to fight US forces”. Most of the 60,000-strong force would, however, concentrate on “a social and religious role”, and he urged them to lay down their weapons.

“Brothers, you should follow this recommendation, and anyone who does not obey will not be with me,” he commanded.

“The weapons will be in their hands exclusively and they must use them only against the occupier and not against others,” he said, an allusion to the constant accusations of murder, extortion and kidnapping levelled at al-Mahdi Army.

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