IRAQ Nine political parties will disband militias

One U.S. soldier was killed and one was wounded in a mortar attack.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Nine major political parties agreed today to disband their militias, the interim prime minister said, although radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's fighters did not join the agreement.
In the southern city of Kufa, explosions rocked the compound surrounding the mosque after ammunition used by fighters loyal to al-Sadr apparently caught fire, witnesses and Shiite militia members said. At least nine people were hurt.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said about 100,000 armed individuals will enter civilian life or take jobs in the state police force or security services. The militias have been credited with an active role in the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein.
"By doing this, we reward their heroism and sacrifices, while making Iraq stronger and eliminating armed forces outside of government control," Allawi said in a prepared statement.
None of the nine militias has been fighting the government and most are controlled by mainstream political movements represented in the government.
Wouldn't disband before
The U.S.-led coalition tried to persuade the militias to disband last year but failed because leaders were unwilling to give up their armed fighters at a time of deteriorating security.
Al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army did not join the agreement. It has been fighting coalition forces since an uprising in early April, although an agreement with Shiite leaders to stop the violence appears to be taking hold in Kufa and its twin city, Najaf.
Under the agreement, most of the militias are to be phased out by 2005.
The deal includes militia members who fought for the Kurdish parties -- the Kurdish Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. They battled Saddam's forces in the northern part of the county.
Allawi said the Badr Brigade of the Supreme Counsel of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq also agreed to disband, although representatives of the party claimed negotiations had not even begun.
Militias that did not take part in the deal were outlawed, Allawi said.
Explosions
In Kufa, firefighters and ambulances went to the site of the explosions near the mosque, where fighters in al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army had been holed up.
One militiaman blamed an American missile attack, but the U.S. military said it had no troops in the area.
Tensions remained high in Iraq after a car bomb outside an American base killed nine people Sunday and injured 30 others -- including three U.S. soldiers. Insurgents also blasted police stations in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad and in a town south of the capital, and a U.S. soldier was killed in a mortar attack.
Riyadh Moussa, a militiaman who had been sleeping in the Kufa mosque compound, said he heard a "whoosh of a missile in the air" and a strong thud when a projectile hit the storage area.
"I'm sure it was the Americans who did it," he said. "We have no other enemies."
A spokesman for the coalition said no forces were near the mosque at the time of the blast. Iraqi police took small arms fire when they tried to approach to see what was going on, the U.S. military said.
The mosque had been the site of near-daily clashes between American troops and al-Sadr's forces. However, the site had been peaceful since Thursday under a deal meant to end the fighting.
The U.S. command also reported an American soldier killed Sunday and another wounded in a mortar attack on the 13th Corps Support Command base near Balad north of Baghdad.
A U.S. security company confirmed Sunday that four of its employees -- two Americans and two Poles -- were killed the day before in an ambush on the main road to Baghdad airport. The company, Blackwater USA, lost four employees in an ambush in March in Fallujah that triggered the bloody three-week siege of the restive Sunni Muslim city.
The British Foreign Office reported Sunday that a British security contractor was killed and three colleagues were wounded in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Mosul.