BAGHDAD, Aug 8: Anti-American Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr would dissolve his Mehdi Army militia if the United States started withdrawing troops according to a set timetable, a spokesman said.

A car bomb in the northern town of Tal Afar killed 18 people and wounded 25, police said, an attack that demonstrated the potential for violence that persists in a country that has become far more peaceful over the past year.

Police said the bomb struck a crowded vegetable market. The town is near the city of Mosul, in an area where US-backed Iraqi forces have launched a crackdown on Al Qaeda militants in recent months.

US forces said 15 people were killed and 50 wounded.

Sadr’s decision to link disarming his militia to a US withdrawal comes at a crucial point in talks between Baghdad and Washington over a security pact to provide a legal basis for US troops in Iraq when a UN mandate expires at the end of the year.—Reuters