Iraqi troops pour into Baghdad Shiite stronghold
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraqi troops poured into Baghdad's Shiite bastion of Sadr City on Tuesday for the first time in eight weeks as militiamen who have been battling US forces held their fire in line with a truce deal.
Large numbers of heavily-armed soldiers fanned out in Sadr City for the first time since the deadly fighting broke out between loyalists of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and US troops in late March.
Security officials said they launched "Operation Peace" at dawn to clear the area where mines had been planted by Shiite militiamen in the teeming slum district of northeastern Baghdad.
The Iraqi troop action is in line with a truce deal reached on May 10 between the government and Sadr's powerful Shiite movement.
"Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers are deployed in different sectors of the city," an officer leading a unit of armoured vehicles told AFP. He said troops had already removed several mines from the city.
"The citizens are cooperating with the Iraqi forces, they welcomed our presence. There were no attacks that targeted the Iraqi military. The situation is peaceful."
An AFP reporter in Sadr City said residents were welcoming the Iraqi soldiers who began spreading out in the sprawling district of two million people while American soldiers remain on guard outside.
No gunfire was heard for the first time in weeks, when residents ran the risk of getting caught up in the crossfire between the militia and the American troops.
Streets were crowded with people going about their daily life among the ruins of dozens of buildings which had taken the brunt of the fighting.
"The entering of Iraqi security forces does not represent a violation of the (truce) deal," Sadr spokesman Salah al-Obeidi told AFP from the central shrine city of Najaf. "The forces have a right to enter and ensure law and order."
However, he said there had been a violation when US troops arrested several residents from Sadr City on Monday.
Much of the fighting had been centred around a huge concrete wall that the US military was building to cut off one third of the Sadr City in a bid to prevent the flow of heavy weapons to the rest of Baghdad.
The Americans had said that they had completed about 80 percent of the work on the wall which became a key issue for the militia men who constantly attacked those working on the construction under tight US protection.
Residents crept through large holes dug out of the wall to cross from the northern side of the city to the south without risking sniper fire while cars were moving freely within the congested area.
There were also no signs of US helicopters which had previously kept close watch on any movements along the wall and directed Hellfire missiles at suspected hostile activity in the neighbourhood.
The US military had directed heavy aerial attacks against targets inside Sadr City. Residents claimed that civilians were affected by the firing, but the Americans maintained they used precision bombing to get their targets.
Hundreds of people have been killed in fighting in the Sadr City since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on militias in the main southern city of Basra in late March.
The fighting quickly spread across Shiite areas of Iraq, particularly Sadr City, a bastion of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
Both US military and Iraqi officials had reported a marked scaling down of violence in Sadr City since the Sadrits entered a truce deal nine days ago that would allow the Iraqi military to enter.
A five-member delegation from the Sadr movement arrived in Sadr City last week to follow-up on implementation of the agreement and said there was good cooperation between the two sides.
The latest military deployment in Sadr City came a day after the Iraqi military carried out search operations in the neighbouring Al-Shaab district and arrested five suspected members of the Mahdi Army.
