Sadr militia turn in weapons

2004-10-11 20:33

Baghdad - Followers of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday trickled in to police stations in Baghdad's Sadr City district to hand in weapons under a deal seen as a key step toward ending weeks of fighting with US and Iraqi forces in the Shiite militant stronghold.

Checkpoints lined the road to al-Nasr police station, and Iraqi national guard members took up position on the surrounding rooftops.

Police spokesperson Kadhim Salman said fighters had turned in machine guns, TNT paste, land mines and other explosives.

Fighters are supposed to be compensated for the weapons they turn in, but Salman said those responsible for the payments hadn't turned up yet.

So, receipts were issued instead.

Malik Jomaa walked up to the station with a white bag containing two grenade launchers slung over his shoulder.

"God willing, there will be no more fighting and Sadr City will live in peace," said the 20-year-old fighter in a track suit.

Outside the Habibiya police station, a pickup truck offloaded about 20 grenade launchers and dozens of mortar rounds, TV footage showed.

US soldiers supervised the process from a distance.

Al-Sadr's Mahdi army agreed over the weekend to hand in its medium and heavy weapons at three police stations in Sadr City.

The arms transfer is supposed to last five days, after which Iraqi police and national guardsmen will assume security responsibility for the teeming Shiite slum, which is home to more than 2 million people.

In return, the government has promised to start releasing detained al-Sadr followers, provided they did not commit crimes.

It has also suspended raids in the northeastern Baghdad district.

Vice-president Ibrahim al-Jaafari welcomed the handover on Monday as a "good and positive initiative," telling APTN that he hoped other insurgent enclaves would follow Sadr City's example.

Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's interim administration has committed more than $500m to rebuilding Sadr City, scene of weeks of heavy fighting between US troops and al-Sadr's militia.

This is not the first time Iraqi authorities have tried to make peace with al-Sadr's militia.

A peace deal brokered after heavy fighting in the holy city of Najaf in August allowed the Mahdi army to walk away with its weapons and clashes continued in Sadr City.

So far, al-Sadr has not pledged to disband his militia, a key US and Iraqi government demand.

But American and Iraqi authorities are eager to end the clashes in the Shiite stronghold so they can concentrate on suppressing the country's more widespread Sunni insurgency.

- AP