IRAQ:Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on his followers yesterday to stop battling government forces after a week of fighting in southern Iraq and Baghdad threatened to spiral out of control.
A crackdown on Shia militants in the southern oil port of Basra has sparked an explosion of violence that risked undoing the past year's improvements in Iraq's security.
"Because of the religious responsibility, and to stop Iraqi blood being shed . . . we call for an end to armed appearances in Basra and all other provinces," Mr Sadr said in a statement given to journalists by his aides in the holy Shia city of Najaf.
"Anyone carrying a weapon and targeting government institutions will not be one of us."
US forces have been drawn deeper into the fighting, which exposed a rift in Iraq's Shia majority between parties in prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's government and Mr Sadr's populist street movement.
The government welcomed Mr Sadr's statement but said it would press on with its offensive in Basra. "The operation in Basra will continue and will not stop until it achieves its goals. It is not targeting the Sadrists but criminals," said spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh.
Scores of people have been killed in clashes in southern Iraq and in Shia neighbourhoods of the capital, where an indefinite curfew is now in place to contain further violence.
In his statement, Mr Sadr also called for an end to "random arrests" of his followers and for them to benefit from an amnesty law passed by parliament in February aimed at freeing thousands of prisoners from Iraqi jails.
Mr Maliki, in Basra to oversee the six-day-old operation, has ordered Shia fighters there to lay down their arms.
He has extended a 72-hour deadline until April 8th for them to turn over heavy and medium weapons in return for cash.
Sadr aide Hazem al-Araji said Mehdi Army fighters would not hand over guns:
"The weapons of the resistance will not be delivered to the Iraqi government," he told journalists.
Mr Araji also said there had been an agreement with the government to stop "random arrests", an underlying grievance of Mr Sadr's followers that has fuelled this week's violence.
Mr Sadr's followers have accused Mr Maliki and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, his most powerful Shia ally in government, of trying to crush them ahead of provincial elections due in October in which they are expected to make a strong showing.