Iraq's Sadr group fires two deputies over U.S. talks

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two Iraqi lawmakers from the movement of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr were sacked on Wednesday for meeting U.S. officials, two officials in the movement said.

A political committee of Sadr's movement fired former transport minister Salam al-Maliki and parliament member Qusay Abdul Wahab as the movement's representatives in the legislature for meeting American officials two days ago, Abdul Mahdi al-Mtiri, a committee member, told Reuters.

The head of the Sadrist bloc in parliament also said the two had been sacked. Maliki denied he had been fired and said he had not met any U.S. officials.

Mtiri said Sadr had approved the sacking, the first public sign of tension in the normally unified political movement which holds a quarter of the parliamentary seats in the ruling Shi'ite Alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

"We have fired them for meeting the occupiers. It is against our beliefs to meet the occupiers. We are seeking to replace them in parliament with another two brothers," Mtiri said.

Sadr, a key political ally of Maliki, led his Mehdi Army militia in two uprisings against the American military in 2004 and has long demanded U.S. forces leave Iraq.

While he has criticised American involvement in a seven-week-old security crackdown in Baghdad, Sadr has not withdrawn his support for an offensive seen as a last ditch attempt to halt all-out sectarian civil war in Iraq.

A U.S. embassy spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny a meeting between the two Sadrists and U.S. officials took place.