Iraq forces urge commitment to Baghdad truce
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's security forces urged themovement of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday to domore to ensure a truce took hold in Baghdad and offered cashrewards for militiamen who gave up their weapons.
Major-General Qassim Moussawi, spokesman for Iraqi securityforces in Baghdad, said gunmen were still attacking troops inthe capital despite a weekend agreement to end nearly twomonths of fighting that has killed hundreds of people.
Clashes broke out in Baghdad overnight and on Wednesday,police said, killing seven people and wounding 28.
The goal was to disarm the militias, Moussawi said.
Many of the Shi'ite gunmen claim loyalty to theanti-American Sadr, but his control over them is unclear.
"So far we are still at the zero stage. Nothing has beendone to implement the agreement on the ground," Moussawi told anews conference.
"We expect our brothers in the Sadr bloc to help our forcesimplement the agreement .. Some centres will be opened to offermoney to those who hand over guns willingly."
Sadr's opposition political movement in parliament and theruling Shi'ite alliance brokered the agreement to end thefighting over the weekend.
Despite the fresh violence, residents in Sadr's easternBaghdad stronghold of Sadr City and the U.S. military said itwas calmer there on Tuesday night compared to recent weeks.
Police said gunmen fought security forces in Sadr Cityovernight in violence that killed five people and wounded 22 inthe crowded slum. Fighting also broke out in western Baghdad'sShula district, killing two and wounding six, police said.
Heavy automatic weapon fire echoed through the streets ofShula, also a stronghold of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia, onWednesday. Shops were closed and residents stayed indoors.
A senior political aide to Sadr has urged patience with thetruce and said it might take time to take effect.
MALIKI FLIES TO MOSUL
Fighting flared in late March when Prime Minister Nurial-Maliki, himself a Shi'ite, ordered a crackdown againstShi'ite militias in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra.
Maliki says the campaign is designed to impose law andorder. He has also ordered an offensive against Sunni Islamistal Qaeda militants in northern Nineveh province.
Maliki flew to the Nineveh capital of Mosul on Wednesday toreview the campaign, officials said, without giving details.
The U.S. military says Mosul is al Qaeda's last major urbanstronghold in Iraq, after earlier offensives pushed the groupout of Baghdad and western Anbar province.
A spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad, Lieutenant-ColonelSteven Stover, said Sadr City was more peaceful on Wednesday.
"According to ... soldiers on the ground it was relativelyquiet (overnight)," he said. The only incident he knew of was aU.S. air strike on three men planting a roadside bomb. Themissile killed two of them, he said.
"We welcome the reduced levels of violence," Stover said.
Mudhafar Nuri, a 35-year-old labourer who lives in the SadrCity slum, also welcomed the calmer conditions.
"Last night was a quiet one. This is the first time we havewitnessed such calm, without any bombardment," he said.
Salam Nassir, a member of the Mehdi Army, said his fightershad been told not to hinder Iraqi army operations.
"We received orders from the Sadr offices not to obstructthe job of the forces no matter what they do to us. But theIraqi army should be more professional so people cooperate."
(Additional reporting by Tim Cocks, Khalid al-Ansary andAseel Kami, Writing by Tim Cocks and Dean Yates, Editing byRobert Woodward)