Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has sent a delegation to tell Iran to stop backing Shi'ite militias, officials said on Thursday, underscoring Iraq's unease over the influence of its powerful neighbour.
The delegation from Maliki's ruling United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) left for Tehran on Wednesday amid further accusations from U.S. military officials that large amounts of Iranian weapons have been found in Iraq.
"The UIA has decided to send a delegation to press the Iranian government to stop financing and supporting the armed groups," said Sami al-Askari, a senior legislator in the Shi'ite party and a close confidante of Maliki.
In London, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said "very, very significant" amounts of Iranian weapons had been found since Maliki launched an offensive against militias in late March.
Petraeus told the BBC after meeting Prime Minister Gordon Brown this included more than 1,000 mortar and artillery rounds, hundreds of rockets and dozens of armour-piercing bombs. The number found in Baghdad was even greater, said Petraeus.
Washington accuses Shi'ite Iran of arming, training and funding rogue elements of the Mehdi Army militia of anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Iran denies the charges.
"It's a very important step (to send the delegation)," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters in Texas.
"I think that the Iranians do care about what the shape of their future relationship with Iraq will be .... Do they want to work with the government of Iraq or are they going to subvert the government of Iraq?" said Gates.
Two suicide bombers killed 41 people and wounded 75 when they detonated explosive vests in a busy market in a town northeast of Baghdad, police said.
The bombings occurred in an area where Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants, blamed for most suicide bombings in Iraq, have sought to regroup.
BAGHDAD FIGHTING
Maliki's crackdown has triggered more than a month of clashes in Baghdad, during which militiamen have fired more than 700 rockets and mortars at targets in the capital. Many of those weapons were Iranian made, U.S. military officials have said.
