BAGHDAD, May 10: Shia groups in control of several Baghdad hospitals will be asked to turn them over peacefully, US and Iraqi health officials said Saturday.

“We’re going to engage them in a dialogue to try to settle the issue peacefully,” Doctor Said Hakki, a US-appointed advisor to the health ministry told reporters following a meeting on Iraq’s battered health sector.

The administration and security of several of the capital’s hospitals, in particular those in the teeming Shiite slum of Sadr City, were taken over by the Hawza after looters ransacked them in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s downfall.

The Hawza is a powerful institution based in Najaf, around 180 kilometres south of Baghdad.

Signs are emerging it is following models set by other Islamic movements — like the Lebanese Hezbollah or Hamas in the Palestinian territories — by becoming involved in public affairs.

Their young devotees patrol the gates of the hospitals with Kalashnikov assault rifles to ward off looters.

“I believe that in many cases these religious groups have occupied these hospitals in an affort to provide security,” said Stephen Browning, senior advisor to the health ministry.—AFP