Sadr saves face with truce

2004-05-27 20:27

Baghdad - By halting his uprising in Najaf, militia leader Moqtada Sadr can cut his losses and stave off a religious backlash for waging war in one of Shiite Islam's holiest places, analysts said on Thursday.

"Sadr was compelled to call a halt to the fighting in order to limit casualties among his supporters, after a huge number had been killed or arrested," said Iraqi specialist on Shiite affairs Adel Rauf.

He said heavy losses and damage to the holiest Shiite shrine in Najaf, the Imam Ali mausoleum, pushed Sadr into seeking a peaceful end to a major military insurgency that was threatening the smooth transfer of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30.

Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of military operations, said on Wednesday that "a very large number" of militiamen were killed in one night of fighting in the young cleric's Baghdad stronghold and Najaf.

During the same night, US troops arrested key Sadr aide and brother-in-law, Ryad al-Nuri, just days after capturing his bodyguard, Mohammed Tabtabai Hakim.

Crisis in Shiite religious hierarchy

Hundreds of young men from Sadr's private Mehdi Army have been killed since Sadr first ordered them to rise up against coalition troops in early April.

Often fighting barefoot, their losses have heavily outnumbered the sparse casualties suffered by the US-led forces.

"He saw it as a good time to speak to the Shiite collective and sign an agreement," said Rauf, who has written a book on what he sees as a crisis in Iraq's Shiite religious hierarchy.

Shortly after Iran and Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the shelling of the Imam Ali shrine, Sadr agreed to withdraw his fighters from Najaf provided the US-led troops did likewise to try to end weeks of bitter fighting.

In a signed statement, Sadr also called for the postponement of legal proceedings against him in connection with his alleged role in the murder of a rival cleric and called for a "broad discussion" on the future of his Mehdi Army militia.

Iraq's national security adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said that the US had promised to respect a peace deal.

"The coalition authorities are aware of and have followed the negotiations very closely.

"They gave the talks their blessing and have promised to respect the agreement," Rubaie told a Baghdad news conference.

Although the outcome of the talks may yet collapse, many see the ceasefire as a victory for the cleric, whose rebellion has been considered one of Iraq's most intractable problems less than five weeks before self-rule.

- AFP