.Iraqi Shiite rebels to lay down arms, US says more troops may be needed
BAGHDAD : A key step toward peace in Iraq was taken when the militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr agreed to lay down their arms in the capital, as US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said more troops may be needed to ensure safe elections in January.
In a deal that would bring an end to months of clashes with US troops in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, a senior Sadr aide said "an agreement has been reached to release all the Iraqi prisoners and to stop pursuing and arresting members of the Sadr movement.
"We in turn have agreed to end all military operations and to hand over all our heavy- and medium-sized weapons," Sheikh Abdul Zahra Suwaidiy told a press conference after talks on the deal.
Suwaidiy said the deal would take effect from Saturday.
After August clashes in Najaf, Sadr's Mehdi Army agreed to leave the Shiite shrine city and hand it back to Iraqi security forces, but there was no formal disarmament of the militia, which is spread around the country.
Since June, Sadr has hinted he was willing to disarm and join the political process, but nothing has come of that.
Earlier, mediator Kareem al-Bakheet said "we have agreed today that the fighters would hand over their heavy and medium-sized weapons for cash starting Monday.
"Also the US military has undertaken not to attack Sadr City and we in turn have agreed to urge fighters through mosque loudspeakers to stop attacking American and Iraqi forces."
Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said the arrangement would initially last for five days, but that there was no official accord.
"We are cautiously optimistic; it is an informal understanding," he said.
"Come Monday, Sadr's people are supposed to start handing in their weapons to designated police and Iraqi national guards," Kadhim explained, adding that US-led multinational would be on stand-by if necessary.
He cautioned, however, that "as far as the interior ministry is concerned action speak louder than words."
The teeming slum of Sadr City has been the scene of frequent violence since Sadr began his uprising against the US-led occupation in April.
American warplanes have been striking militia positions in the district in recent days to root out insurgents in the area ahead of January's elections.
Bakheet, who heads a grouping of tribal leaders in Sadr City loyal to Sadr, said the government had agreed to stop pursuing and arresting Sadr's partisans and that "only those fighters charged with crimes would be prosecuted while the majority would be eligible for amnesty."
If the deal holds, it will mark a huge triumph for the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, which has pledged to stamp out pockets of insurgency before elections in January.
But with one crisis on the brink of resolution, the government had a rude reminder of the unrest elsewhere as mortar rounds hit the top-security compound where it is based along with the US and British embassies.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Earlier, a US military official had warned of a major attack on a high-profile target ahead of the Muslim holiday month of Ramadan, which begins next week.
Rumsfeld was meeting opposite numbers from 18 allies on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf Saturday to reassure them on US strategy for Iraq, after saying more troops may be sent in for the January elections.
He told reporters accompanying him on the flight from Washington to Bahrain that the United States may send more troops to Iraq to protect the planned elections if US commanders decide they are needed.
He also said Washington was trying to find countries to provide troops to protect the UN mission that is supposed to organize the polls.
"To the extent that's appropriate and needed, obviously that makes sense," he said. "To the extent other countries come in and take some of that responsibility, then that might not be necessary."
Rumsfeld added that about 140,000 Iraqi security forces should be trained and equipped by the elections.
Meanwhile, the British embassy in Baghdad said it was doing everything possible to recover the body of 62-year-old engineer Kenneth Bigley, who was kidnapped three weeks ago and whose beheading was confirmed on Friday.
Elsewhere, the conservative government of Australian Prime Minister John Howard won a fourth straight term in office as Australia's booming economy overshadowed criticism of his staunch support for the US-led war in Iraq.
But in the US presidential campaign, Washington's decision to go to war remained in the spotlight, as US President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry dueled over Iraq in their second election debate.
Back on the ground, the US military in Iraq said Tareq Aziz, the former Iraqi deputy prime minister under Saddam Hussein, is alive, denying television reports that he had died in custody.
- AFP
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