US sees truce with Sadr

2004-05-27 08:32

Baghdad - Radical cleric Moqtada Sadr agreed to a truce that would end deadly battles in three Iraqi cities, US officials said on Wednesday, as London and Washington put on a show of unity over the future of Iraq.

US officials in Washington said Sadr and a council of Iraqi clerics had reached a deal that would stop the violence by his private Mehdi Army and remove them from government buildings in the contested cities of Najaf, Kufa and Karbala.

Details of the plan were to be announced on Thursday in Baghdad, but one official said the deal also appeared to call for dealing in some way with the Mehdi Army militiamen connected to the killing of a rival cleric last year.

The deal came after 13 Iraqis were killed and 33 wounded in fighting early on Wednesday between Sadr's Mehdi Army militia and US soldiers in the huge Shiite cemetery in Najaf, medics and militia commanders said.

The coalition's deputy director of operations, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said a "very large number" of militiamen had been killed in overnight clashes in Najaf and Shiite districts of Baghdad.

Pressed on the death toll, Kimmitt said only it was "fewer than 100."

US troops also detained a key Sadr lieutenant and three aides in dawn raids around Najaf, a Sadr spokesperson said.

During the fighting one mortar round damaged the city's Imam Ali mausoleum, which is revered by Shiites.

Sadr aides insisted they had proof that the mortar round was American, but a coalition spokesperson said he was unaware of any fighting in the area involving US troops.

- SAPA