Washington claims truce with Sadr: Britain sending more troops to Iraq
uploaded 29 May 2004BAGHDAD, May 27: Radical Shia leader Moqtada Sadr appeared ready to end his resistance on Thursday in what would be a major breakthrough for US-led efforts to stabilize Iraq ahead of next month's transfer of sovereignty.
US officials in Washington said Sadr and a council of Iraqi clerics had reached a deal that would stop the fighting in Najaf, Kufa and Karbala. US commanders said they were "highly optimistic" that a peace deal could be struck after almost two months of fighting across central and southern Iraq which has claimed hundreds of Iraqi lives.
"It is important that he respects what he said in the agreement and according to our information, Moqtada Sadr's militiamen have begun to carry out the agreement," said a senior US commander in Baghdad.
"At the moment, all military operations have stopped." Britain announced it would send 370 extra troops to Iraq, bringing its strength to about 8,900 ahead of the transfer of power from the US-led coalition to Iraqis by June 30.
Ukraine also said on Thursday it planned to add an additional 150 troops to its 1,600-plus contingent in Iraq this summer, reinforcing its support for the US-led campaign.
US President George W. Bush, in a major election-year Iraq policy speech earlier this week, warned of "chaotic" days ahead amid fears of a greater unrest and violence in the leadup to the transfer of sovereignty.
But after weeks of relentless US military pressure and back-room negotiations between Sadr and local leaders in Najaf, south of Baghdad, the cleric announced he was ready to make peace.
His four-point offer could end the so-called "second front" of opposition to US-led forces which erupted in early April along with the Sunni bastion of Fallujah. The fighting in Fallujah, the bloodiest since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March last year, ended after coalition forces agreed to allow local fighters to work with US-trained Iraqi security forces to maintain order.
A similar arrangement appeared to be in the offing in Najaf after Sadr pledged to withdraw his fighters from the city and allow the return of Iraqi security forces as long as US troops also pulled back.
Sadr also called for the postponement of legal proceedings against him and a "broad discussion" on the future of his militia. The cleric, aged in his early 30s, also demanded occupation forces withdraw "to their bases" except for small contingents to protect coalition buildings and the provincial governor's office.
The cleric's statement marked a dramatic climbdown from his earlier pledge to lead his followers to "martyrdom" and unleash waves of suicide bombers on coalition forces if they entered the holy cities.
Officials in Washington hailed the offer as a "significant achievement". "They appear to have peacefully resolved the situation in Najaf, Kufa and Karbala," one senior official said.
Source: AFP
