Cheney forecasts lengthy violence in Iraq

[Barrett808]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney warned that deadly violence would plague Iraq for "some considerable period of time" and said it was up to Iraqis to decide how to tackle sectarian militias.

Asked about radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, Cheney told CNBC television that US-led forces had dealt with "the chief bad guy," Saddam Hussein, and that it was now up to Iraqis to handle Sadr.

Sadr "obviously speaks for a significant number of Iraqis, has a strong following. But if anything were to be addressed in that area, it's got to be addressed by the Iraqis themselves," Cheney said in the interview.

"The Iraqis are now the sovereign authority inside Iraq. That's their government. It's their responsibility. They'll have to make those judgments and decisions," he said.

The White House released a transcript of the exchange, which came as opposition Democrats used the unpopular war in Iraq as a political weapon in an effort to win control of the US Congress in November 7 elections.

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