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{ Shortly before Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers to desist from attacking Iraqi forces, his militia stormed this TV facility in Basra on Sunday, forcing Iraqi troops to flee ).
BAGHDAD - In a possible turning point in the recent upsurge in violence, Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Shiite militiamen off the streets but called on the government to stop its raids against his followers. The government welcomed the move Sunday, 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.”
align=”justify”>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. air strike Martyred 25 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.”
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