BAGHDAD, Iraq — A prominent Shiite politician called Friday for Iraqi forces to play a greater security role and for an end to "interference in their work" — an apparent reference to U.S. efforts to curb abuses by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry.
The remarks by Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, who heads the country's biggest Shiite party, came as the U.S. military drafted plans to move up to 5,000 U.S. troops with armored vehicles and tanks into Baghdad in an effort to quell escalating violence.
Al-Hakim told thousands of supporters at a rally in the southern city of Najaf that the Americans should turn over more security responsibility to the Iraqis and stop "the interference in their work."
He said the surging violence was due to "being lax in hunting down terrorists and upholding the wrong policies in dealing with them."
Sunni extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists, al-Hakim said, are to blame for the violence. However, he also endorsed the government's pledge to disband militias, including those affiliated with Shiite politicians.
Al-Hakim, the former commander of the feared Badr Brigade militia, has long complained the Americans have interfered with Iraqi forces' efforts to crack down on Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists.
Those complaints grew more frequent after U.S. troops raided an Interior Ministry lockup last November and found prisoners showing signs of torture. At the time, the ministry was controlled by al-Hakim's party, and it still wields considerable influence although the ministers were changed in May.
Members of his Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq have been suspicious of U.S. and Iraqi government peace overtures to Sunni insurgents and have privately complained that top Sunni politicians have intervened to free suspects picked up in Baghdad.
Al-Hakim spoke a day after a complex attack including rockets, mortars and a car bomb killed at least 31 people in Karradah, a mostly Shiite district in central Baghdad where al-Hakim and other top leaders of his party live.
A statement posted late Thursday on an Islamist Web site said the attack was "in response to Shiite crimes."