Iraqi Leaders to Decide Cleric’s Fate, Bush Says

WASHINGTON — President Bush said Tuesday that Iraq’s government would decide how to deal with militant Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr, the insurgency leader whom the United States previously vowed to capture or kill.

Interim Iraqi President Ghazi Ajil Yawer has said Sadr is welcome to participate as a political leader in elections expected next January.

At a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said: “The interim Iraqi government will deal with Al Sadr in the way they see fit. They’re sovereign. When we say we transfer full sovereignty, we mean we transfer full sovereignty. And they will deal with him appropriately.”

Sadr’s Al Mahdi militia launched an uprising against American-led occupation troops this year. He later agreed to a truce in the cities of Najaf and Karbala under pressure from Shiite leaders who were appalled by the fighting in the midst of religious shrines.