BAGHDAD — The Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on Sunday took a step toward ending six days of intense combat between his militia allies and Iraqi and American forces in Basra and Baghdad, saying in a statement that his followers would lay down their arms providing the Iraqi government met a series of demands.
The substance of the nine-point statement, released by Mr. Sadr on Sunday afternoon, was hammered out in elaborate negotiations over the past few days with senior Iraqi officials, some of whom traveled to Iran to meet with Mr. Sadr, according to several officials involved in the negotiations.
Just minutes after the statement was released, however, two mortar shells fired by militia fighters hit the presidential palace in Basra, which is an active government office complex but has been at least partly deserted since the violence started. And in Baghdad, the Green Zone continued to be a target for mortar and rocket attacks throughout the afternoon. Street clashes also persisted in Basra and other cities, according to witnesses.
Iraqi forces, backed up by American war planes and ground troops, have been in a stalemate with Shiite militias affiliated with Mr. Sadr in Basra for the past six days, in a military operation that has stirred harsh criticism of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Mr. Maliki’s campaign to take back militia-controlled parts of the southern city has met with far more resistance than was expected from militia fighters, Iraq’s defense minister, Abdul Kadir al-Obeidi, conceded last week.
Many Iraqi politicians say that Mr. Maliki’s political capital has been severely depleted by the campaign and that he is now in the curious position of having to turn to Mr. Sadr, a longtime rival and now his opponent in battle, for a solution to the crisis.
In the statement, Mr. Sadr told militia members “to end all military actions in Basra and in all the provinces” and “to cooperate with the government to achieve security.”
But he also made demands, including an amnesty for fighters in the Mahdi Army militia and the release of all imprisoned members of the Sadrist movement who have not been convicted of crimes. While the government has occasionally made small-scale releases of Sadrists, it has resisted earlier demands for more sweeping action.
The move by Mr. Sadr stood in stark contrast to his actions in 2004, when he ordered his militia to fight to the death in the old city of Najaf, suggesting that Mr. Sadr’s political sophistication and skill at military strategizing has grown in the past few years.
“With this statement, Sayyed Moktada al-Sadr proved that he is a good politician, working for the sake of Iraq,” said Mahmoud al-Mashadani, the speaker of the Iraqi Parliament and a senior Sunni politician.
Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for Mr. Maliki, appeared on the Iraqi television station Iraqia and said that the government welcomed the action and that Mr. Sadr’s gesture demonstrated his “concern for Iraq and Iraqis.” Still, it was not immediately clear which, if any, of the concessions the Iraqi government has agreed to.
Mr. Sadr’s statement did not appear to have an immediate effect on the violence that has rippled throughout the country and paralyzed the capital over the last week.
In the Sadr City neighborhood, there were reports that two American Stryker personnel carriers had been blown up by roadside bombs. A spokesman for the American military, Lt. Col. Steve Stover, would not confirm or deny the attacks, saying, “We don’t discuss damages to our vehicles as that provides information to the enemy on the effectiveness of their attacks.”
But Mr. Stover did confirm that American helicopters had made airstrikes in two other neighborhoods, New Baghdad, just south of Sadr City, and Ghazaliya in eastern Baghdad, killing at least five people.
An end to the fighting in Iraq?
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