Iraq's al-Sadr orders fighters to stop

Pooky · #1 (**permalink**) 03-30-2008, 12:18 PM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23866765

Well, this is certainly good news, though I have suspicions he may be up to something. It might be a similar trick to the Tet Offensive...

DuH2 · #2 (**permalink**) 03-30-2008, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Mar 30, 4:10 PM EDT

Al-Sadr pulls fighters off streets

By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) -- In a possible turning point in the recent upsurge in violence, Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Shiite militiamen off the streets Sunday but called on the government to stop its raids against his followers.

The government welcomed the move, which followed intense negotiations by Shiite officials, including two lawmakers who reportedly traveled to Iran to ask religious authorities there to intervene.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose offensive that began Tuesday in the oil-rich southern city in Basra sparked the crisis, called al-Sadr's statement "a step in the right direction."

But fighting continued in the Basra area after the announcement. Seven people also were killed when a mortar struck a residential district in Baghdad's Karradah district, and witnesses reported clashes in the Shula area in a northern section of the capital.

The nine-point statement by the anti-American cleric, which was broadcast through Shiite mosques in Baghdad and across the south, called for an end to the "armed presence" in Basra and other cities and urged followers "to cooperate with the government to achieve security."

Al-Sadr, however, also demanded that the Iraqi government stop "illegal and haphazard raids" and release security detainees who haven't been charged, two issues cited by his movement as reasons for fighting the government.

The Sadrists have complained that the government has released few of their followers under a new amnesty law, which they complain has favored Sunnis who have recently joined with the Americans to fight al-Qaida.

The cleric's decision offered way out of a widening Shiite conflict at a time when government forces appeared to be making little headway against the well-armed militias in Basra.

Al-Sadr's order stopped short of calling on his fighters to disarm. And the government insisted it would still target "outlaws."

Iraqi authorities in Baghdad said a citywide curfew would be lifted Monday morning, although a vehicle ban remained on three strongholds of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in the capital

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

Daybreaker · #3 (**permalink**) 03-30-2008, 06:15 PM

Excellent!

Now if we could just get Bush to do the same.

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