Fighting between Shia militiamen and security forces in Sadr City eased today after a week of intense clashes, with hospitals in the Baghdad slum saying they had received no dead or wounded overnight.
Over a hundred people have been killed in Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's east Baghdad stronghold since fighting began between his masked Mehdi Army militia and US and Iraqi troops in the streets of the slum one week ago.
Twenty US soldiers have died in insurgent attacks since last Sunday, one of the deadliest weeks for US troops since last September.
The fighting has highlighted the fragility of security gains seen in Iraq since mid-2007, when additional US troops were sent to restore order amid an upturn in insurgent attacks.
A Reuters reporter who spent the night in Sadr City said the area had been relatively quiet overnight, with only sporadic gunfire. Iraqi forces appeared to be blocking some road exits from the slum this morning, causing traffic to back up.
The US military had not reported any new killings in the sprawling district as of this morning.
But it was unclear whether the calmer streets meant the past week's fierce clashes were nearing an end or were merely a pause in fighting sparked by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's crackdown on Sadr's militia in the southern city of Basra last month.
In a statement issued by Sadr's office in the holy Shia city of Najaf yesterday, the anti-American cleric showed no signs he was ready to call off his fighters.
"You (infidels) will always be an enemy and you will remain so until the last drop of my blood," Sadr said in the statement, issued in response to comments the previous day from US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
"If you don't withdraw from our land or set a timetable for withdrawal acceptable to the Iraqi people, we will resist in the way we see fit."
Mr Gates had said in Washington that Sadr would not be treated as an enemy by the United States as long as he played a peaceful role in Iraqi politics.
The United States has 160,000 troops in Iraq, 20,000 of whom are due to head home by July, but President George W. Bush has resisted pressure from Democrats to commit to further cuts.
In one incident in the New Baghdad district, adjacent to Sadr City, US forces fired two missiles yesterday at militants placing roadside bombs.
While the first strike killed two suspected militants, the second missile "overshot", the US military said today, setting alight a US military vehicle and nearby houses.
Two US soldiers and three civilians were wounded and the US military said it was investigating the cause of the "misfire".
"(These) events are unfortunate and our apologies go out to those innocent civilians who were affected," Colonel Bill Buckner, a military spokesman, said in a statement.
Critics say US forces often fire on militants without taking reasonable care to find out who else is in the area. The US military says militants often deliberately use civilians as shields against its forces.