Reuters, Baghdad, 09 October 2008 (excerpts) – U.S. forces in Iraq fear a wave of assassinations ahead of provincial elections, some carried out by militant cells trained in Iran, the U.S. general in command of the southern half of the country said on Thursday.

Iraq is due to hold provincial elections by the end of January, the first opportunity Iraqis have to vote since 2005.

Major-General Michael Oates, commander of the U.S. division that operates in eight of Iraq’s nine mainly Shi’ite southern provinces, told reporters in Baghdad he expected a wave of political assassinations ahead of the voting.

Oates said leaders of renegade cells had mainly fled to Iran, but some had returned and were seeking to recruit disaffected former followers of Sadr.

He said the new cells they were forming mainly operated underground and were smaller than units of Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia, which once controlled many parts of southern Iraq but have largely disbanded or disappeared from view.

“Where they return they seek to regenerate violent cells,” he said. “They could be used as a political change agent to affect conditions on the ground by killing candidates.”