United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

Varied accounts indicated a confused situation in Iraq on Sunday. -- Moqtada al-Sadr issued a nine-point statement and called for a truce, a proposal that was greeted by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as "a step in the right direction," AP reported.[1] -- Fighting in the Basra area and attacks on the Green Zone continued, however. -- AP said the development came after "intense negotiations by Shiite officials, including two lawmakers who reportedly traveled to Iran to ask religious authorities there to intervene" by asking them "to pressure al-Sadr to come up with a face-saving initiative." -- (Iran has close relations with all the Shiite factions involved in the fighting.) -- "Before al-Sadr's statement, dozens of Shiite gunmen Sunday stormed a government TV facility in central Basra, forcing Iraqi troops guarding the building to flee and setting armored vehicles on fire," AP reported. "One of al-Maliki's top security officials also was killed in a mortar attack in Basra." -- Late Sunday the Christian Science Monitor published a very different account, casting doubt on whether there would be a truce and saying that Sadr was sending "mixed signals."[2] -- The Monitor also offered a new account of the campaign according to which the U.S. military was involved in planning the offensive (earlier accounts claimed, improbably, Maliki had acted without consulting American authorities).[2] -- "Several residents in Basra confirmed that the militia continues to cling on to most of its strongholds in Basra despite the U.S. and British-backed government offensive involving nearly 28,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen," Sam Dagher reported. -- "It appears the government may have underestimated the nature of Sadr's response and, for that matter, the extent of Iran's support to the cleric, analysts say." -- The New York Times indicated that Moqtada al-Sadr is now in Iran.[3] -- Erica Goode said that "Many Iraqi politicians say that Mr. Maliki’s political capital has been severely depleted by the campaign and that he is now in the curious position of having to turn to Mr. Sadr, a longtime rival and now his opponent in battle, for a solution to the crisis." -- The Times mentioned reports "that two American Stryker personnel carriers had been blown up by roadside bombs" in Sadr City. -- The Scotsman reported, confusingly, that "The Iraqi government welcomed Sadr's statement but said it would press on with its offensive in Basra. -- 'The operation in Basra will not stop until it achieves its goals. It is not targeting the Sadrists but criminals,' a spokesman said."[4] -- Reuters, meanwhile, reported Sunday that "U.S. special forces units were operating alongside Iraqi government troops in Basra."[5] -- A separate Reuters report said Mahdi Army fighters had been caught "off guard" by Sadr's call to stop fighting: "Although Mahdi Army members said they would obey the call, they doubted the government would keep its side of the bargain," Wisam Mohammed and Ahmed Rasheed reported from Baghdad.[6] -- CNN described contradictory words and actions on all sides that suggested an effort all around to find a face-saving deescalation was underway.[7] -- USA Today reported additional details about the negotiations behind what it suggested had a chance of being a firm agreement: "Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni lawmaker who oversaw mediation in Baghdad, said representatives from al-Maliki's Dawa Party and another Shiite party traveled to Iran to finalize talks with al-Sadr. -- Iran has close ties with both al-Sadr's movement and al-Maliki, who spent several years in exile there. Al-Nujaifi said the agreement was brokered by the commander of Iran's al-Quds Brigade, which is considered a terrorist organization by Washington."[8] -- Though it was too soon to tell whether the ceasefire would hold, Charles Levinson said it was clear that Sadr emerges strengthened from the week's fighting, and Maliki's position is much weaker....

BAGHDAD -- 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.

A U.S. airstrike killed 25 suspected militants after American ground forces came under heavy fire during a combat patrol in predominantly Shiite eastern Baghdad, where the fiercest clashes in the capital have occurred.

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 a 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.

Before al-Sadr's statement, dozens of Shiite gunmen Sunday stormed a government TV facility in central Basra, forcing Iraqi troops guarding the building to flee and setting armored vehicles on fire.

One of al-Maliki's top security officials also was killed in a mortar attack in Basra, officials said. The prime minister's Dawa party issued a statement of condolences identifying the slain official as Salim Qassim, known by his nickname Abu Laith al-Kadhimi.

In an effort to curb the growing violence, two senior Shiite lawmakers close to al-Maliki -- Hadi al-Amri and Ali al-Adeeb -- traveled to Iran and asked authorities there to stop the flow of weapons to al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, according to two officials.

The lawmakers -- both of whom have close ties to Iran -- also asked the Iranians to pressure al-Sadr to come up with a face-saving initiative, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The U.S. has accused Iran of supplying weapons, money, and training to all major Shiite factions in Iraq. Those include the Mahdi Army as well as groups closely allied with the Americans. Tehran denies the charges.

Scattered firing could be heard in central Baghdad hours after al-Sadr's statement was released, and rockets or mortars were fired toward the Green Zone, where U.S. diplomats were holed up in the embassy at Saddam Hussein's former palace and ordered to stay under hard cover as the sprawling area has come under frequent fire this week.

At least seven Iraqis were killed and 21 wounded when two rounds apparently fell short, striking houses in the commercial district of Karradah, police said.

Suspected Mahdi Army gunmen also attacked an Iraqi checkpoint in eastern Baghdad, killing six troops, police said. The attack came hours after al-Sadr's statement was issued by his office in the holy city of Najaf.

The strength of the resistance to the week-old offensive has taken the U.S.-backed government by surprise, forcing it to bring in reinforcements as the number of Iraqi security forces involved in the effort topped 30,000.

The prime minister, himself a Shiite, has called the fight "a decisive and final battle," although he acknowledged later that he may have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash the offensive would provoke.

An estimated 400 people have been killed as fighting spread to Baghdad neighborhoods and other southern cities.

Several clashes have involved U.S. forces and the U.S. military launched airstrikes in Basra and American special forces were on the ground helping the Iraqi ground troops. The military said 16 enemy fighters were killed when an AC-130 gunship strafed heavily armed militants attacking Iraqi troops during clashes on Saturday.

The Shiite violence threatened to jeopardize recent security gains due to an influx of American troops, a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and al-Sadr's cease-fire that was announced in August.

Attacks bearing the hallmark of al-Qaida militants also continued in northern Iraq.

A suicide car bomber killed five U.S.-backed Sunni fighters and wounded eight other people near the oil hub of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

Gunmen also killed five policemen in Duluiyah, a Sunni-dominated area 45 miles north of Baghdad.

Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier and a Marine were killed in separate roadside bombings in Baghdad and in Anbar province west of the capital, the military reported. That raises to 4,009 the number of American service members killed since the war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The U.S. military said separately that American and Iraqi troops unearthed 14 badly decomposed bodies in a mass grave on Saturday in Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad. It was the second such find since Thursday, when 37 bodies were found.

--Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Hamid Ahmed contributed to this report.

** Battles continued to rage Sunday between the radical cleric's Mahdi Army and Iraqi and U.S. forces. **

BAGHDAD -- Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi religious leader whose Mahdi Army has been locked in a deadly battle with Iraqi forces, aided by the U.S. military, in Baghdad, Basra, and other southern cities, called for a cooling-off period in a statement issued Sunday.

While the announcement was welcomed by the Iraqi government as helping its effort to "impose security" in Basra, the southern oil city, it appeared to conflict with other comments by Mr. Sadr, who told Al Jazeera Saturday that the U.S. would be "defeated just the way they were defeated in Vietnam" and that his militiamen were on the path of "liberation."

It was too early to tell whether the statement, read in the holy city of Najaf, would end fighting in the south or in the capital. But contrary to initial reports, the U.S. and Iraqi government campaign against the Mahdi Army, say officials and analysts, is a carefully coordinated effort by the U.S. and Sadr's Shiite rivals to deal a decisive blow to the outspoken cleric.

It's the latest episode in a strategy that has been under way for some time now to draw out the militia's hard-core elements, thus dividing it into "good" and "bad," according to the deputy chief of staff of Iraq's armed forces, a secular Shiite who has strong ties to U.S. military commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus.

"There is the good, bad, and ugly, but the heads are linked. Now we are rooting out the bad guys," says Gen. Naseer al-Abadi.

The U.S. has long accused so-called "special groups" within the Mahdi Army of having ties to Iran, being behind the more spectacular roadside bombings in Iraq, and more recently for firing rockets and mortars into the fortified Green Zone, the area of Baghdad that houses the US Embassy and Iraqi government offices.

But analysts say that the strategy of drawing out these "rogue elements" within the Mahdi Army in Basra quickly spread to other southern cities and gave rise to fighting in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold, Sadr City.

If the battle does continue, critics warn, it risks driving Baghdad and the whole southern half of the country into a precipice and perhaps leading to a civil war between Shiite factions.

"The U.S. was involved in the initial decision to move against the Mahdi Army. . . . The Americans are going to help crush the Sadrists by siding with Hakim and Dawa," says Mustafa al-Ani, a Dubai-based analyst with the Gulf Research Center, referring to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the force behind the ruling Shiite political bloc which includes Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party.

Underscoring the realignment among Shiite parties that has been under way for months, Mr. Maliki, who was previously firmly aligned with Sadr's political group, has now swung to Mr. Hakim's side after the Sadrists quit his government and the Shiite bloc itself last year. Maliki has also been weakened by fractures inside his own party and sour relations with ruling Sunni Arab and Kurdish factions. The Kurds strongly share with Hakim a vision for a federal Iraq.

"But this is another misguided policy by the Americans. . . . The Iranians have links to all Shiite groups, especially Hakim. They will sign with whoever wins. They are waiting to see the outcome of this conflict. They are playing a very clever game," adds Mr. Ani.

As of Sunday afternoon in Baghdad, militiamen allied to Sadr continued to dig in for a long fight. In the capital, which has been under total curfew since Thursday, clashes pitting U.S. troops and Iraqi forces against the militia raged on, mainly in eastern Baghdad in their strongholds Sadr City and Baghdad Jadida (New Baghdad). Residents of Sadr City reported that Mahdi fighters planted more roadside bombs to prevent U.S. troops positioned all around from advancing any further.

On Saturday, a health official said 133 bodies and nearly 650 wounded have been taken to hospitals just from the fighting in eastern Baghdad since Tuesday. During the same period, the U.S. military said it lost six of its soldiers in Baghdad and that it killed 153 militiamen. Residents say two of Sadr City's largest markets, Jamila and Mraidi, are now mostly destroyed.

Rockets and mortars also continued to slam into the Green Zone with many missing their targets and falling on residential neighborhoods nearby. These attacks alone that started on March 23 have killed at least two dozen, including one U.S. citizen.

In the nine provinces south of Baghdad, including Basra, at least 200 have been killed in fighting and acts of violence since Tuesday, according to officials cited by various wire agencies.

Independent information on the true scale of casualties has been hard to obtain because of a complete blackout imposed by Maliki's government.

"We are prohibited from saying anything, only the military command can release information about casualties," says Riad Abdul-Amir, Basra's top health official while admitting that ambulances have yet been unable to venture into several neighborhoods to pick up the dead and wounded because of the ferocity of the fighting.

Several residents in Basra confirmed that the militia continues to cling on to most of its strongholds in Basra despite the U.S. and British-backed government offensive involving nearly 28,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen.

It appears the government may have underestimated the nature of Sadr's response and, for that matter, the extent of Iran's support to the cleric, analysts say.

While Sadr's Sunday statement called for a halt in attacks on government forces and property "for the sake of extinguishing the flames of discord," it made no mention of the Mahdi Army or a cease-fire, nor did it address Maliki's ultimatum for fighters to drop their weapons by April 8 in return for cash and amnesty.

The government, for its part, said it will press on with its operation in Basra, which it has been insisting is against "outlaws and criminals" and not the Sadrist movement. Maliki has said he was "shocked" at the reaction of Sadr's partisans, who have dubbed him a "new dictator" and called for his ouster. While the Minister of Defense Abdul-Qader al-Obaidi said there was a "miscalculation" regarding the nature of the fight.

BAGHDAD -- The Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on Sunday took a step toward ending six days of intense combat between his militia allies and Iraqi and American forces in Basra and Baghdad, saying in a statement that his followers would lay down their arms providing the Iraqi government met a series of demands.

The substance of the nine-point statement, released by Mr. Sadr on Sunday afternoon, was hammered out in elaborate negotiations over the past few days with senior Iraqi officials, some of whom traveled to Iran to meet with Mr. Sadr, according to several officials involved in the negotiations.

Just minutes after the statement was released, however, two mortar shells fired by militia fighters hit the presidential palace in Basra, which is an active government office complex but has been at least partly deserted since the violence started. And in Baghdad, the Green Zone continued to be a target for mortar and rocket attacks throughout the afternoon. Street clashes also persisted in Basra and other cities, according to witnesses.

Iraqi forces, backed up by American war planes and ground troops, have been in a stalemate with Shiite militias affiliated with Mr. Sadr in Basra for the past six days, in a military operation that has stirred harsh criticism of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Mr. Maliki’s campaign to take back militia-controlled parts of the southern city has met with far more resistance than was expected from militia fighters, Iraq’s defense minister, Abdul Kadir al-Obeidi, conceded last week.

Many Iraqi politicians say that Mr. Maliki’s political capital has been severely depleted by the campaign and that he is now in the curious position of having to turn to Mr. Sadr, a longtime rival and now his opponent in battle, for a solution to the crisis.

In the statement, Mr. Sadr told militia members “to end all military actions in Basra and in all the provinces” and “to cooperate with the government to achieve security.”

But he also made demands, including an amnesty for fighters in the Mahdi Army militia and the release of all imprisoned members of the Sadrist movement who have not been convicted of crimes. While the government has occasionally made small-scale releases of Sadrists, it has resisted earlier demands for more sweeping action.

The move by Mr. Sadr stood in stark contrast to his actions in 2004, when he ordered his militia to fight to the death in the old city of Najaf, suggesting that Mr. Sadr’s political sophistication and skill at military strategizing has grown in the past few years.

“With this statement, Sayyed Moktada al-Sadr proved that he is a good politician, working for the sake of Iraq,” said Mahmoud al-Mashadani, the speaker of the Iraqi Parliament and a senior Sunni politician.

Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for Mr. Maliki, appeared on the Iraqi television station Iraqia and said that the government welcomed the action and that Mr. Sadr’s gesture demonstrated his “concern for Iraq and Iraqis.” Still, it was not immediately clear which, if any, of the concessions the Iraqi government has agreed to.

Mr. Sadr’s statement did not appear to have an immediate effect on the violence that has rippled throughout the country and paralyzed the capital over the last week.

In the Sadr City neighborhood, there were reports that two American Stryker personnel carriers had been blown up by roadside bombs. A spokesman for the American military, Lt. Col. Steve Stover, would not confirm or deny the attacks, saying, “We don’t discuss damages to our vehicles as that provides information to the enemy on the effectiveness of their attacks.”

But Mr. Stover did confirm that American helicopters had made airstrikes in two other neighborhoods, New Baghdad, just south of Sadr City, and Ghazaliya in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five people.

NAJAF -- Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shia cleric, yesterday called on his followers to stop battling Iraqi government forces after a week of fighting in southern Iraq and Baghdad threatened to spiral out of control.

A crackdown on Shia militants in Basra has provoked an explosion of violence that risked undoing the past year's improvements in Iraq's security.

"Because of the religious responsibility, and to stop Iraqi blood being shed . . . we call for an end to armed appearances in Basra and all other provinces," Sadr said in a statement issued in the holy Shia city of Najaf. "Anyone carrying a weapon and targeting government institutions will not be one of us."

U.S. forces have been drawn deeper into the fighting, which exposed a rift in Iraq's Shiite majority between parties in prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's government and Sadr's populist movement. British troops also became involved over the weekend, launching artillery shells at a mortar crew in the al-Khalaf area of northern Basra, which had fired on Iraqi troops.

The Iraqi government welcomed Sadr's statement but said it would press on with its offensive in Basra.

"The operation in Basra will not stop until it achieves its goals. It is not targeting the Sadrists but criminals," a spokesman said.

Scores of people have been killed in clashes in southern Iraq and in Shia neighbourhoods of the capital, where an indefinite curfew is now in place to contain further violence.

Sadr also called for an end to "random arrests" of his followers and for them to benefit from an amnesty law passed by parliament in February aimed at freeing thousands of prisoners from Iraqi jails.

Mr. Maliki, in Basra to oversee the six-day operation, has ordered Shiite fighters there to lay down their arms and has extended a 72-hour deadline until 8 April for them to turn over heavy and medium weapons in return for cash.

Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji said Mahdi army fighters would not hand over guns: "The weapons of the resistance will not be delivered to the Iraqi government."

Araji also said there had been an agreement with the government to stop "random arrests," an underlying grievance of Sadr's followers that has fuelled this week's violence.

Sadr's followers have accused Mr. Maliki and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, his most powerful Shiite ally in government, of trying to crush them ahead of elections due in October in which they are expected to make a strong showing.

Sadrists have complained that Iraqi and U.S. forces have exploited a truce called by the cleric last August to make indiscriminate arrests. The U.S. military says it only targets those who disobeyed Sadr's ceasefire order. A key test will be whether Sadr's unruly militia, which he has sought to reorganize in recent months to root out rogue elements, will obey his order to stand down.

Shortly after Sadr's statement, a salvo of rockets or mortars was fired at the Green Zone diplomatic and government compound in central Baghdad. The U.S. military has blamed rogue Mahdi army militiamen for similar barrages in the past week.

This week's fighting has placed the United States in a dilemma. While it wants Iraqi forces to take the lead on security, the Basra operation endangered Sadr's truce, a key factor in the drop in violence in Iraq since last June.

The United States also risks being sucked into an intra-Shia conflict at a time when it plans to pull out some 20,000 troops and decide soon on future troop levels. Democrats seeking to succeed President George Bush want speedier withdrawals.

U.S. SAYS SPECIAL FORCES FIGHT IN BASRA
By Peter Graff
** U.S. special forces units working with Iraqi troops in Basra -- U.S. military says raid killed 22 suspected militants -- Baghdad under indefinite curfew **

BAGHDAD -- The United States confirmed on Sunday that U.S. special forces units were operating alongside Iraqi government troops in Basra, where the government is battling militants loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

A U.S. military statement described a joint raid by Iraqi and U.S. special forces units which killed 22 suspected militants, including "16 criminal fighters" strafed in an air strike on three houses.

The raid showed U.S. forces are being drawn deeper into the Iraqi-led crackdown, launched on Tuesday by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Basra, Iraq's second-biggest city.

The Iraqi special forces team killed four suspected militants in a house and two on a roof before calling in the air strike, the statement said.

"While engaged with hostile forces, ISOF and a supporting U.S. Special Forces team identified additional armed criminal elements in the area," it said. "A supporting Coalition forces aircraft identified enemy forces on three rooftops and engaged with precision gunfire after being cleared by ground forces."

The description of the incident matches a strike the aftermath of which was photographed on Saturday by Reuters. Blood flowed into a sewer from a house. Neighbors had collected a plastic tub of shredded human remains.

Maliki has ordered militants to lay down their arms, extending a 72-hour deadline until April 8. But on Saturday Sadr's aides said the cleric had told his followers not to turn over any weapons to a government that was unable to expel the "occupiers," referring to U.S. forces.

Despite the six-day operation, Sadr's Mehdi Army fighters remain in control of many Basra streets, manning checkpoints and openly brandishing rifles, machineguns, and rocket launchers.

Washington has so far strongly backed Maliki's decision to launch the crackdown. President George W. Bush has called it a "defining moment in the history of a free Iraq."

But the spread of violence risks undoing a year of security improvements and jeopardizing plans for U.S. troops to withdraw.

The fighting has established a new main adversary for U.S. forces, whose main military effort for the past year had been against Sunni Arab groups such as al Qaeda.

Sadr is a Shi'ite like Maliki, and helped install the U.S.-backed government in 2006. Although hostile to the United States, he declared a ceasefire last year that U.S. officials said curbed violence. That truce now appears to be in tatters.

On Saturday Maliki said his new foes were "worse than al Qaeda," the Shi'ite-led government's fiercest enemy.

U.S. forces are scarce in the southern Shi'ite areas. British forces pulled out of Basra in December and the remaining British contingent of 4,100 troops has remained on a base outside the city during the latest fighting.

The fighting in Basra has spread to other towns throughout the Shi'ite south of the country and across Baghdad, especially the vast Sadr City slum, named for the cleric's slain father, where his followers have their main power base.

In Baghdad, U.S. forces have been involved in their heaviest fighting in the capital in months, with gunbattles and air strikes that they say have killed scores of fighters.

The capital has been placed under a curfew, which on Saturday night was extended indefinitely. All shops, businesses and schools are closed.

SADR FOLLOWERS CAUGHT OFF GUARD BY TRUCE
By Wisam Mohammed and Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD -- A sudden call by Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to stop battling government forces caught his followers off guard on Sunday after six days of fighting that had spread through southern Iraq and Baghdad.

Although Mahdi Army members said they would obey the call, they doubted the government would keep its side of the bargain.

Sadr's aides portrayed the order to stop fighting as part of a deal negotiated with the authorities to end arrests that have outraged his followers. The government said it would not halt its campaign against "criminals" in the southern city of Basra, which triggered fighting in other Shi'ite areas.

It was difficult to tell what effect Sadr's order has had on the fighting. A Reuters correspondent in Basra said it appeared to be followed by a lull.

"We respect the orders of Moqtada al-Sadr, but at the same time the government should also respect his statement," Abu Munadhil al-Tamimi, a Mahdi Army group leader in Basra's Tamimiya neighborhood, said by telephone.

"We will not lay down arms until government forces stop chasing and arresting Mahdi Army fighters," he said. "We have been fighting for six days and some of our fighters lost their lives along with innocent civilians. We are not ready to stay home waiting to be arrested by the army."

In Baghdad's Sadr City, the huge slum named for the cleric's slain father that is the main power base of his followers in the capital, fighters were awaiting orders.

"We are now making phone calls to headquarters," a low-level Mahdi Army commander who gave his name as Abu Haidar told Reuters. "We don't know what to do. If we carry guns the government will oppose us, but if we put them down, the Americans will come, surround our homes and capture us."

Another Sadr City street commander, Abu Aqeel, said: "We don't have a choice. We should respect the order of Moqtada al-Sadr. But we will respect it with unease.

"There are worries, because this order will allow the American forces to capture and kill us one after another."

Sadr's followers revere him, but it has never been clear how tight a grip he has on them once they take to the streets. A ceasefire he declared last year did not halt attacks altogether, but it reduced violence substantially, U.S. commanders say.

Sunday's truce may be more difficult to make stick. It comes after six days of combat, with hundreds killed and wounded.

In many towns in the south, Sadr followers are locked in power struggles with rival Shi'ite groups. Those local conflicts have their own logic separate from politics on a national level.

"This is like a trap from the government. They used Moqtada al-Sadr to publish this truce order so they could enter difficult areas which Iraqi forces could not otherwise control in Basra," said Abu Haidar. "They are bluffing and cheating us."

Sadr's aides said his followers, while halting combat against the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, would still need their arms to fight the "occupiers" -- U.S. forces.

"This order from Moqtada al-Sadr means we will not fight the Iraqi forces. But it does not mean we will not fight the American forces," said another Sadr City street commander, Abu Qasim. "We will carry guns against the occupation, against America, because they will attack us anyway."

BAGHDAD -- Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on followers to stop shooting and cooperate with Iraqi security forces Sunday, a move Iraq's government praised as a step toward ending six days of fighting that has left hundreds dead.

"We announce our disavowal from anyone who carries weapons and targets government institutions, charities, and political party offices," al-Sadr said in a nine-point statement issued by his headquarters in Najaf.

The statement was accompanied by demands that the Iraqi government issue a general amnesty to his followers and release any being held. The statement was distributed across Iraq and posted on the Internet.

The move was welcomed by Iraq's government, whose forces have been fighting al-Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, in six days of clashes with so-called "outlaws" who had taken control of much of the southern city of Basra. U.S. and coalition troops have been supporting the Iraqi offensive.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who had vowed not to leave Basra until his government reclaimed control of the city, called al-Sadr's statement a "step in the right direction" and said he hoped it would help to stabilize the region.

"We renew our assurance that the process of enforcement [of] the law in Basra does not target any political or religious group, including the Sadr movement," al-Maliki said in a prepared statement.

Witnesses reported continued clashes throughout the day in Basra even after Sunday's announcements. But Iraqi authorities said after al-Sadr's announcement they would lift an indefinite curfew that had been imposed on Baghdad since Thursday.

The curfew is scheduled to be lifted 6 a.m. Monday (11 p.m. Sunday ET), said Gen. Qassim Atta, an Iraqi military spokesman. But a vehicle ban will stay in place in three Shiite militia strongholds -- neighborhoods in the capital, including Sadr City, Kadhimiya, and Shulaa, Atta said.

Al-Sadr's statement came after what an aide described as direct talks between al-Sadr's representatives and the Iraqi government in Najaf that started Saturday night.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh denied there were talks with al-Sadr's representatives, directly or indirectly. But speaking on Iraqi state TV, al-Dabbagh said "A large number of people will listen to Moqtada al-Sadr's call."

"Life will return to all of Iraq as before," he said. "The statement is positive and responsive; we as the government of Iraq believe this effort will be in the common interest and help the security efforts that the government is working to achieve."

Death tolls are difficult to obtain, but reports from Iraqi and coalition authorities suggest more than 400 people have died since fighting began Tuesday. The fighting has been heaviest in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and major oil port, and a U.S. military analysis of the battle indicated the government push was not going as well as American officials had hoped, several U.S. officials said Friday.

In Washington, CIA Director Michael Hayden told NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that about 70 percent of Basra was under the control of "criminal elements" when the assault was launched. Though the increase in violence was disappointing, he said, the government assault "was something that we all knew we had to go through."

"This was inevitable. This had to be resolved. You just can't have the second major city in the country -- economically, the most important city in the country -- beyond the control of the government," Hayden said.

Top U.S. officials, including President Bush, have praised al-Maliki's operation as a sign of a strengthening Iraqi government. But Hayden and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said the Iraqis did not consult them before launching their offensive.

"We'll see how well the Iraqi army fought. We'll see how well it was planned and executed. And we may find that the Iraqi army did not do a very good job of planning and executing this effort," Graham, a Senate colleague and close ally of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, told "Fox News Sunday."

Graham said the militia fighters that Iraqi troops are battling are backed by Iran, which he said was "killing Americans" by arming the militias. But Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed said Iran has close ties to all of Iraq's Shiite factions, including al-Maliki's Dawa party and the country's largest Shiite religious party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

"The notion that this is a fight by American allies against Iranian-inspired elements is not accurate," said Reed, a leading Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Al-Sadr's political movement holds 30 seats in Iraq's 275-member parliament and was once a partner in al-Maliki's ruling coalition. The party quit the government in 2007 after al-Maliki refused to demand a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The cleric's supporters have linked the government offensive to provincial elections slated to take place October 1. Nassar al-Rubaie, an official in al-Sadr's political movement, said the army and police were being used "for political reasons."

A high-ranking Iraqi security official said at least 200 people have been killed and 500 wounded in Basra battles since Tuesday. More than 100 had been killed in Baghdad as of Sunday, with another 100-plus killed in clashes in other cities in southern Iraq, Iraqi authorities reported.

U.S. and British forces have supported Iraqi troops with airstrikes and shelling in Basra, as well as reconnaissance and intelligence, coalition military officials have said. U.S. troops have also conducted raids and engaged in gun battles with militia fighters alongside Iraqi troops.

U.S. airstrikes killed at least 15 people in Baghdad neighborhoods known to be Mahdi Army strongholds Sunday morning, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. And Baghdad's International Zone -- where many Iraqi government buildings and embassies are located -- was targeted again Sunday by rockets or mortars, but no injuries or damage was immediately reported, a U.S. Embassy official said.

Also on Sunday, roadside bombings in northern and western Iraq killed two U.S. troops, while attacks on Iraqi police and others left another 19 dead, Iraqi police and U.S. military officials reported.

One roadside bombing killed a U.S. soldier north of Baghdad, while a Marine died in another bombing in the western province of Anbar, the U.S. military headquarters there reported. No details of the attacks were released. The latest attacks bring the U.S. death toll in the 5-year-old war to 4,009.

• In northern Iraq, five Iraqi police officers were killed and two bystanders were wounded when gunmen attacked a police patrol in the town of Dhuluiyah Sunday, Samarra police said.

• The U.S. military said Sunday it found a mass grave with 14 bodies near Muqdadiya. The bodies, which showed signs of torture, appeared to have been in the grave for two to six months. They were found 100 yards from where 37 bodies were found buried Thursday, the military said.

• Ten people were killed Sunday when a suicide car bomb struck a checkpoint manned by members of the Awakening Council, Baiji police said. Four members of the council were among the dead. Awakening Councils are largely Sunni security groups that have been recruited by the U.S. military.

• Also in Baiji, a child was killed and seven civilians were wounded when a mortar landed in a residential area Saturday afternoon, Baiji police said Sunday.

• In Samarra, gunmen stormed the home of an Awakening Council member, killing him and his son. His wife and daughter were wounded in the Saturday morning attack, Samarra police said Sunday.

BAGHDAD -- Iranian officials helped broker a cease-fire agreement Sunday between Iraq's government and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, according to Iraqi lawmakers.

The deal could help defuse a wave of violence that had threatened recent security progress in Iraq. It also may signal the growing regional influence of Iran, a country the Bush administration accuses of providing support to terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.

Al-Sadr ordered his forces off the streets of Iraq on Sunday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hailed al-Sadr's action as "a step in the right direction." It was unclear whether the deal would completely end six days of clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and Shiite militias, including al-Sadr's.

Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni lawmaker who oversaw mediation in Baghdad, said representatives from al-Maliki's Dawa Party and another Shiite party traveled to Iran to finalize talks with al-Sadr.

Iran has close ties with both al-Sadr's movement and al-Maliki, who spent several years in exile there. Al-Nujaifi said the agreement was brokered by the commander of Iran's al-Quds Brigade, which is considered a terrorist organization by Washington.

Haidar al-Abadi, a Dawa legislator who is close to al-Maliki, confirmed that Iranians played a role in the negotiations. Sadiq al-Rikabi, a senior adviser to al-Maliki, said he could not confirm or deny Iranian involvement in the deal.

"The government proved once again that Iran is a central player in Iraq," said Iraqi political analyst and former intelligence officer Ibrahim Sumydai.

The nine-point deal was released by al-Sadr's office and read aloud from the minarets of Shiite mosques across southern Iraq. Al-Sadr called for the government to stop arresting his followers and release prisoners who have not been charged with a crime.

Hours later, rockets continued to shake Baghdad. According to the U.S. military, elements of al-Sadr's militia no longer answer to him.

Al-Rikabi vowed Iraqi forces will continue a broad offensive against "criminal elements" in the southern city of Basra and elsewhere.

Vali Nasr, an Iraq expert at the Council of Foreign Relations, said al-Sadr had emerged stronger from the battle, which killed more than 300 people. "He let the Americans and the Iraqis know that taking him down is going to be difficult."

Al-Sadr's militia stood strong, forcing the government to extend a deadline for them to disarm.

"Everything we heard indicates the Sadrists had control of more ground in Basra at the end of the fighting than they did at the beginning," said al-Nujaifi, the Sunni mediator. "The government realized things were not going in the right direction."