"I reject the accusation that the Badr or SAIRI have any connection to anti-American attacks," Bayati

BAGHDAD, June 8 (Islamonline.net & News Agencies) – Iraq’s main opposition party, the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), and the U.S.-led occupation authority were at loggerhead Sunday, June 8, over American demands to disarm.

In the face of a blunt warning from the American troops Saturday, June 7, for SAIRI to hand over arms or face consequences, the Shiite group insisted it was already in compliance with the new weapons order.

SAIRI spokesman Hamed al-Bayati said Sunday the only forces which the movement retained were lightly armed "secret cells" from its underground resistance to Saddam Hussein's regime, which he charged would remain entirely lawful.

"The secret cells are individuals who keep their weapons in their homes. I think the law says that people are allowed to keep weapons at their homes up to 7.62 mm calibre," he argued.

The American arms controls which come into force on June 15 after a two-week amnesty period allow individuals to keep light weapons in their homes and businesses, up to and including Kalashnikhov, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

But separately, it requires all Iraqi factions to disarm their militias, outside the three northern provinces still held by two Kurdish Groups which fought alongside the Anglo-American forces during the war.

"How can you come to the negotiating table with weapons?" a spokesman for the U.S.-led occupation authority argued Saturday.

He alleged the authority had yet to see evidence on the ground that SAIRI had disarmed and threatened they were fully prepared to take action.

"One or two SAIRI spokesmen have said the Badr Brigade will disarm. We welcome those statements and we look forward to seeing that, " he said.

"If they don't disarm and they violate the weapons policy, they know what the consequences will be," the spokesman threatened.

Bayati expressed, for his part, surprise at the comments, insisting that its Badr Brigades military wing, which boasted as many as 15,000 fighters in its war against Saddam from neighbouring Iran, had already been disarmed.

"We have no camps, we have no heavy weapons," the SAIRI spokesman asserted.

"We are going to keep our militia unarmed and integrate it with the new Iraqi army, the new Iraqi police force, the new Iraqi neighbourhood watch teams."

Bayati said SAIRI officials had remained in constant touch with American and British commanders about the issue, meeting with ground forces chief Lieutenant General David McKiernan separately on Friday and then again as part of wider group of former exiled factions on Saturday.

SAIRI officials have charged that they are being unfairly treated by the U.S.-led authority because of Washington's obsession with their long time Iranian sponsors.

Despite the movement's long history of resistance to Saddam, the Americans kept the Badr Brigades out of Iraq with threats of military action throughout the war.

SAIRI leaders have complained of the special treatment being accorded to the Kurdish factions in northern Iraq, and accuse the U.S. military of targeting its members, regardless of whether they are civilians or former militiamen.

20 SAIRI Detained

Despite repeated pleas to the American ground forces chief, SAIRI still had no information about the fate of 20 of its members detained over the past month, "several" of whom had nothing to do with the Badr Brigades.

"We've asked for their release or to be told what the nature of the accusations is," Bayati said Saturday.

"There has been no formal charge made against any of them."

He said some of those arrested have been held for around a month and that the group had met this week with McKiernan about the case.

"I reject the accusation that the Badr or SAIRI have any connection to anti-American attacks," Bayati said.

He said Sheikh Ali al-Muwalla had been arrested in the northern town of Tal Afar and that Ghaleb Al-Assadi, head of the SAIRI office in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, was arrested in Diyala province along the Iranian border.