Fighting in Sadr City Despite Truce Deal
 
13 May 2008

The U.S. military in Iraq says it has killed three gunmen who attacked American patrols in Baghdad's Sadr City district despite a ceasefire deal for the district.

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Alec N. Temples provides security while fellow scouts search old bunkers in western Anbar province, Iraq, May 2. The scouts are with Charlie Company, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 5.

U.S. officials reported several incidents Sunday evening and Monday morning.

Residents of Sadr City say the overall level of violence has dropped since Iraq's government announced the ceasefire deal on Saturday.

The truce was negotiated by Iraq's main Shi'ite political bloc and representatives of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. His militia has a stronghold in Sadr City.

Fighting in that district has killed hundreds of people since late March when Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on armed Shi'ite factions.

The U.S. military has said repeatedly that it is fighting rogue elements of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia. The bulk of Sadr's forces are believed to have been adhering to a general ceasefire ordered by the cleric last August.

Also Monday, Kurdish officials said Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq for a third straight night.

They said the strikes occurred in a remote part of Iraq's Dahuk province near the Turkish border.

In a separate incident, the U.S. military said a U.S. soldier was killed in a roadside bombing in northwestern Baghdad Sunday night.

U.S. military officials in Iraq expressed optimism yesterday that a truce being worked out between the Iraqi government and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia will help reduce violence in Baghdad’s Sadr City section.
“We welcome an end to violence and putting an end to criminal activity, so we are obviously in support of the government of Iraq as they move forward in a dialog with elements of the Sadr Trend,” Navy Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said at a news conference.

But Driscoll emphasized that it’s premature to call the agreement a done deal. News reports cited violent flare-ups in the area last night and this morning.

“It is premature to say that there is an agreed-to truce,” Driscoll said. “The process of negotiations is ongoing.”

Coalition and Iraqi forces are limiting their operations in Sadr City as the negotiations take place, he said. “We are aligning ourselves with the Iraqi security forces and following their lead,” he said. “They have decided to take a pause here, if you will, in terms of operations.”

Meanwhile, the security situation in the area that coalition and Iraqi forces control “is stable and getting better,” said Army Brig. Gen. James M. Milano, deputy commander of 4th Infantry Division and Multinational Division Baghdad.

Driscoll emphasized that, despite any slowdown in activity, operations to protect innocent civilians will continue.

Toward that end, troops are emplacing concrete barriers along so-called “Route Gold” to promote security in Sadr City, Milano told reporters. “We’ve had a great deal of success over the past two years at emplacing barriers to create safe neighborhoods and safe markets,” he said.

The intent of the barriers is to control access, to consolidate the secured area, and “to prevent the reintroduction of criminal elements and weaponry that threaten the citizens of Baghdad,” the general explained.