Iraqi troops test truce in cleric stronghold

[frigidmagi]

Rueters

Iraqi troops set up checkpoints and patrolled strategic streets in Moqtada al-Sadr's Baghdad stronghold on Wednesday, testing a truce with the Shi'ite cleric's Mehdi Army militia.

About 10,000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by tanks and U.S. attack helicopters, have been pushing deep into Sadr City since launching an operation on Tuesday to assert government authority on an area previously outside its control.

Should the operation succeed, it would boost Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's efforts to show he is tough on armed groups and capable of dismantling their fiefdoms in Iraq's more lawless parts, rather than relying on U.S. troops to fight them.

A truce 11 days ago between Shi'ite factions largely ended weeks of fighting pitting U.S. and Iraqi forces against the Mehdi Army that had killed hundreds of people.

But in renewed violence just south of the slum in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said its troops shot dead 11 militants on Wednesday. Police and several residents said at least some were civilians shot dead by U.S. snipers.

The U.S. military said all those killed were members of so-called "special groups", jargon for rogue units of Sadr's militia accused of receiving funding and training from Iran.

Under the Sadr City truce, the Mehdi Army fighters agreed to lay down their weapons to allow security forces to restore control over the slum.

"The Iraqi army came. Our relations with them are good. There is an understanding between us," said Salman al-Furaiji, the head of Sadr's office in Sadr City, adding that Iraqi soldiers had even held prayers alongside Mehdi Army fighters.

Iraqi security forces have so far met no resistance as they have moved into Sadr City, securing at least three quarters of the sprawling slum.

It is in sharp contrast to the fierce fighting sparked when Iraqi forces entered Mehdi Army strongholds in the southern oil port of Basra in March.

RESTORING ORDER

The clampdown on Shi'ite gunmen in Baghdad coincides with an Iraqi-led offensive against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in northern Iraq, also seen as a test of the government's credibility on security before Oct 1. provincial elections.

Major-General Mark Hertling, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, said U.S. and Iraqi troops had inflicted serious damage on al Qaeda in the northern city of Mosul, regarded by the U.S. military as the group's last major urban stronghold.

They had arrested 1,200 people, many of them self-proclaimed senior or mid-level leaders of al Qaeda or other Sunni insurgent groups, he said. Daily attacks in Mosul had fallen from an average of 40 to about six, he said.

"We believe we have significantly affected the terrorist, extremist and criminal organizations in Mosul, Nineveh and other areas of the northern provinces," he said.

Unlike the Basra operation, the Sadr City sweep was carefully coordinated with Sadr's movement to avoid bloodshed.

But tensions rose when soldiers tried to go into mosques and used binoculars, which residents feared would enable them to peer at women in their houses. Furaiji said the police had apologized for entering mosques, easing tensions.

Major-General Qassim Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraqi security forces in Baghdad, said the setting up of checkpoints and patrols was to prepare for a new phase of the operation. He declined to comment further, but an army source said it would involve seizing heavy weapons from militiamen.

That is likely to test the truce as the militiamen have refused to hand over their arsenal, which includes rockets, mortars and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

The source said a joint committee comprising members of Sadr's movement and the ruling Shi'ite alliance -- the two signatories to the truce -- would enter the city to oversee it.

One Mehdi Army leader, Abu Ammar, said his men had received orders from Sadr's head office in the holy city of Najaf to cooperate with the Iraqi forces as far as possible.

But another militiaman said the Mehdi Army was poised to retaliate for any misbehavior by the army.

"The Iraqi army should be careful, because they are confined inside the city," Abu Yassir said. "If they commit any violation or harm civilians, we will defeat them: they are in our hands."