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Baghdad: The Mehdi Army of Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr would disarm if the United States withdraws troops according to plan, a spokesman said.
Iraqi negotiators have proposed a timetable of US troop withdrawal by October 2010, although Washington has not yet agreed to it, a senior Iraqi official said on Friday.
"We feel there's a serious intention by the American forces for a withdrawal timetable at the very least," Sadr's spokesman Salah Al Ubaidi said on Friday.
"It should not be considered an end to the Mehdi army, but it's a halfway step to dissolving the Mehdi Army. If the US began to implement a withdrawal timetable we shall complete the path to dissolution," Ubaidi said.
At least 144,000 US troops remain in Iraq.
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