Sadrists strike deal to end Baghdad fighting

by Salam Faraj Sat May 10, 8:11 AM ET

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The movement of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said on Saturday it had struck a deal with Iraqi officials to end weeks of fighting in Baghdad that left another 13 people dead overnight.

Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, the spokesman for the cleric's office in the central shrine city of Najaf, said the deal to end the fighting in the movement's Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City would be effective from Sunday.

"We will stop the fire, stop displaying arms in public and open all the roads leading to Sadr City," Obeidi told AFP.

"This agreement will be executed from tomorrow. The Sadr movement has agreed to the contents of the deal and it has now become an official document.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh declined to give any immediate details of the agreement.

"I can't say anything, we will make an announcement soon about the agreement," he said.

Obeidi, who took part in the negotiations leading to the clinching of the deal in Baghdad, said the two sides had reached agreement on most issues.

"The two groups agreed on 10 of the 14 points discussed. The agreed points do not include disbanding of Jaish al-Mahdi," he said, referring to Sadr's feared Mahdi Army militia.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whose government is dominated by Shiites, wants to disband Sadr's militia before October provincial elections.

The Sadr movement says it needs its weapons for self-defence until other Shiite and Sunni groups nurtured by the US military and the Baghdad government are also disarmed.

"The agreement stipulates that the government's security forces have the right to make raids and searches (in Sadr City) for those who are wanted but by following the principles of human rights," Obeidi said.

The Sadr movement has repeatedly accused the security forces of randomly arresting its leaders.

An official from the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite bloc that leads the ruling coalition, confirmed the agreement saying that Iraqi forces "will be allowed inside Sadr City to nab the wanted".

"It was also decided that all the bombs planted on the streets of Sadr City should be removed," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Fighting in Sadr City continued overnight leaving 13 people dead, Iraqi medics and security officials said.

"Every 10 minutes or so we heard explosions," said Sadr City resident Hussein Kadhim, 35. "Last night must have been one of the worst nights of fighting in the past month."

A medical source at the Al-Sadr hospital said 77 people were also wounded in the fighting. All of the dead were men but the wounded included women and children.

The US military said six militants were killed in two air strikes in and around Sadr City.

At approximately 10:00 am (0700 GMT) an air weapons team observed five militants in east Baghdad.

"The air weapons team fired two Hellfire missiles killing all five. A truck was observed arriving on the scene and recovering the bodies of the five militants," US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Steven Stover said.

One militant was killed during the night in another air strike as he was trying to fire a rocket, he added.

He said there were also "multiple harassment fire events, both small-arms and rocket-propelled grenades predominantly, throughout the night.

"Nothing serious, no injuries or damage."

Since March 25, US and Iraqi forces have been battling militants in Sadr City, mostly from the Mahdi Army. Hundreds of people have died.

An aide to Sadr used his sermon at the main weekly prayers in Sadr City on Friday to criticise Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for not speaking out against the death toll from the clashes.

"We are surprised by the silence in Najaf," where the Shiite religious hierarchy is based, Sheikh Sattar Battat said.

"For 50 days, Sadr City has been bombed... Children, women and old people have been killed by all kinds of US weapons, and Najaf remains silent."

Battat complained that there had been no religious decree from the Shiite hierarchy criticising the assault by US and Iraqi government troops on Shiite fighters.

"For us this means that Najaf accepts the massacre in Sadr City," he said.

There was no immediate reaction to the criticism from Sistani's office.