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BAGHDAD - IRAQ'S prime minister raised the stakes in his showdown with followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, saying in an interview broadcast on Monday they would be barred from elections unless their militia disbands.
The comments followed an offensive by government forces into the cleric's Baghdad stronghold, the Shi'ite slum of Sadr City, in which heavy fighting returned to the capital after a week of relative calm.
'A decision was taken...that they no longer have a right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mehdi Army,' Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said in an interview with CNN.
His threat to drive Sadr's millions of supporters out of the political process heightens tensions in a conflict that has divided Iraq's Shi'ite majority and led to the worst fighting since extra US troops arrived last year.
The cleric's followers are due this year to participate for the first time in elections for powerful provincial government posts that control the southern half of the country - and are widely expected to oust less-popular Shi'ite parties that back Mr Maliki.
Meanwhile, five US soldiers were killed on Sunday in the renewed fighting, including three killed and 31 wounded in strikes with mortars bombs or rockets that crashed across Baghdad. - REUTERS
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