Mahdi army calls six-month truce

The Iraqi militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, called a six-month truce on Aug. 29 after fighting with a rival Shia Muslim group in the holy city of Kerbala left more than 50 dead. A spokesman for the Mahdi army claimed they would lay down their weapons for six months and, during this time, would attack neither other Shia groups nor the US army. Although US forces will welcome any respite, most of the attacks they face in the center and north of Iraq are from Sunni nationalist groups. Since President George Bush announced in January he was to send an extra 30,000 US troops to Iraq, the Mahdi army has reduced the number of attacks on US forces. Even when US forces went into Sadr city, a slum area of Baghdad that is the stronghold of Sadr, the predicted bloodbath did not materialize and the Mahdi army has maintained a low profile. Sadr's truce appears to be in response to a backlash by fellow Shias over three days of Shia in-fighting at a time when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims are in Kerbala. The fighting forced many pilgrims to flee. At least 52 died and 279 were wounded on Aug. 28 in the fighting between the Mahdi army and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council. A curfew has been imposed on the city. Hazim al-Araji, an aide to Sadr, read out a statement to Reuters saying the militia would suspend its operations "to restructure it in a way that will preserve its principles." He said Sadr had ordered all his movement's offices shut for three days of mourning. The restructuring is a hint he is trying to distance himself from elements in the Mahdi army being blamed for taking violence close to two holy sites, the Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas shrines. He can claim that parts of the Mahdi army are outside his control. Another aide suggested as much when he said the aim was to remove bad members "working for their personal interests... to hurt the Mahdi army's reputation."