Al Maliki keen on retaining power

Baghdad: With a raid this week on a camp of Iranian dissidents once sheltered by the United States, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has again demonstrated a knack for surprising both foes and allies in his attempt to emerge as the victor in crucial parliamentary elections in January.

So far, he has ordered attacks on militiamen in Basra against the advice of the US military, turned the June 30 deadline for US troop withdrawal from Iraqi cities into an orchestrated celebration of Iraqi independence and rigorously tried to conceal the US presence that remains, fearful that Iraqis will see the withdrawal as a charade.

Al Maliki's government had for months contemplated a move against the Iranian exiles, who are members of a group called the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, promising the US government that it would treat the more than 3,000 camp residents humanely and not force any of them to return to Iran. But the raid on Tuesday caught US military officials, diplomats and even some Iraqi officers by surprise. Iran, which has called for action against the group, lauded the operation.

Taken together, the moves demonstrate an eagerness on Al Maliki's part to do what was unthinkable when he took office three years ago - create an image of himself as an independent leader in a country that still hosts 130,000 US troops. But his penchant for unilateral action, often backed with the force of arms, has created enemies across the spectrum, many of them determined to block his reelection.

"He wants to turn himself into a national symbol, and he is willing to use power and force to promote himself as one," said Salim Abdullah, a Sunni lawmaker and part of a bloc in parliament that has opposed Al Maliki in the past. "He is determined to break through anything that can get in the way of him becoming prime minister again."

Al Maliki faces an array of challenges as he heads toward elections in January that will choose a parliament and eventually lead to a new cabinet and prime minister. Few expect him to maintain the remarkable convergence of luck and fortune that has helped transform him from a compromise choice as prime minister, whose weakness made him appealing to more powerful forces, into the axis today around which Iraqi politics have begun to revolve.

Violence remains a feature of the landscape here, threatening to undo what Al Maliki, fairly or unfairly, has touted as his greatest accomplishment: a restoration of a semblance of calm in Baghdad and other war-wrecked towns and cities.