Sadr group strikes deal to end Baghdad fighting
The movement of anti-American Shia 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 Shias, wants to disband Sadr's militia before October provincial elections.
The Sadr movement says it needs its weapons for self-defence until other Shia 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 Shia 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 killing a US soldiers and 19 Shia extremists, and one American soldier died of non-combat injuries, the military said Saturday.
"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."
The US soldier, who was assigned to the Multi National Division Centre, died of non-combat related injuries Friday, the military said. The death raised the number of US military fatalities in Iraq to at least 4,074 since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Iraqi health authorities said Saturday that 13 people were killed and 77 others wounded including women and children in clashes in the Shia militia stronghold of Sadr City district since Friday. It was not clear whether any militants were among them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
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