BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister said Friday that the country’s most influential Shiite cleric will leave the decision on the future of U.S. troops to the government and parliament — a step that could remove a major obstacle to a deal.
But tension rose in the Iraqi capital Friday as a car bomb killed 13 people in a Shiite enclave and thousands of Shiites marched to mourn the assassination of a lawmaker that their leaders blamed on the Americans.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, journeyed Friday to the Shiite holy city of Najaf to brief Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani about the progress in talks with Washington on a security agreement governing operations of U.S. forces starting next year.
After the meeting, al-Maliki told reporters that the Iranian-born cleric would not oppose the security deal if it is approved by the country’s democratic institutions — including parliament, which must ratify the pact.
“He does not want anything forced or imposed on the Iraqi people,” al-Maliki said. “Rather, he wants it to be done through the institutions. If the government and the parliament approve this, then (al-Sistani) will be convinced that is what the Iraqi people have decided.”
Al-Sistani’s office had no comment.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have said they are close to an agreement that would replace the U.N. mandate for U.S. forces in Iraq; the mandate expires Dec. 31.
Friday’s car bombing occurred in the main outdoor market in Abu Dshir, a Shiite enclave in the Dora neighborhood, where Sunni-Shiite tensions had been running high last year. The blast ripped the fronts off shops and set several of them ablaze.
Police and hospital officials said 13 people were killed and 27 were wounded. The U.S. military gave a lower toll, saying four civilians were killed and 14 wounded in the attack.
Earlier Friday, a roadside bomb struck a minibus in another part of Dora, killing one passenger and wounding 12.
